A national calibration exercise for the British Association for the Study of Community Dentistry regional examiners

Representative examiners from all regions in England and examiners from Wales and Scotland took part in a national calibration exercise conducted in Manchester for The British Association for the Study of Community Dentistry (BASCD). Each dentist examined the same group of thirty-three 5-year-old and thirty 14-year-old children independently, and they were asked to examine the children by the same method as that used within that Region when conducting the annual BASCD surveys. Comparisons of inter-examiner differences revealed that in the examination of 5-year-old children diagnoses were not significantly different for 14 out of the 16 Regional examiners. Differences in the conventions applied in the case of missing teeth and 'arrested caries' were found and are discussed. There were no significant differences in the diagnoses for the DMFT for the 14-year-old children amongst all 16 Regional examiners. The calibration exercise allowed a close examination of the application of the BASCD criteria in the field.