Abstract
The purpose of this pilot study was to explore the impact of a dental hygiene faculty calibration training program on intra- and inter-examiner reproducibility levels on calculus detection using an 11/12 explorer. Inconsistency among clinic faculty members is frustrating for students. After Institutional Review Board approval, 12 dental hygiene faculty members were recruited for participation in the study and randomized to two groups (experimental and control). All subjects provided pre- and post-test measurements twice on three typodonts. Measurements were recorded on answer sheets. The experimental group received 3, 2-hour, training sessions which consisted of practicing a prescribed exploring sequence and technique for calculus detection. Subjects immediately corrected their answers with a key, received feedback from the trainer, and reconciled missed areas. Intra- and inter-examiner reproducibility levels (pre- and post-) were measured using Cohen’s Kappa and compared between experimental and control groups using repeated measures (split-plot) ANOVA. The experimental and control groups did not differ in their change in reproducibility (self-agreement) from pre- to post-training (p = 0.64). Also, the experimental and control groups did not differ in their change in agreement with true presence/absence of simulated calculus from pre- to post-training (p = 0.20). Although the results of this study failed to reject the null hypothesis that training has no effect on the reproducibility levels for simulated calculus detection, further studies of clinical faculty calibration need to be implemented with larger and more representative samples. The impact of calibration on students’ learning and satisfaction should also be examined.
- Copyright © 2007 The American Dental Hygienists' Association
