Examiner reliability in fluorosis scoring: a comparison of photographic and clinical methods.

OBJECTIVE: To assess examiner reliability when scoring dental fluorosis in Malaysian children using clinical (Dean's Index) and photographic methods. METHOD: The upper central incisors of 111 children were examined both clinically and photographically for fluorosis status using Dean's index. Twenty children were re-examined after a two-week interval for intra-examiner reliability by a single examiner. In addition, two independent examiners and the clinical examiner scored 111 photographic images of the same children in a standardized manner. Fluorosis scores were compared individually between examiners for both clinical and photographic scoring. Examiner reliability was assessed using both simple and weighted kappa statistics at tooth level. Sensitivity, specificity, positive-negative predictive values and a Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve were also calculated to determine the accuracy of the test. RESULTS: Across the three examiners, the prevalence of fluorosis (Dean's score ≥ 2) using photographs was lower (ranged from 23% to 26%) than the prevalence recorded by clinical examination (30%). The kappa score for intra-examiner reliability for the duplicate clinical examination was excellent (0.89). Inter-examiner reliability between the photographic method and the clinical examination (gold standard) for each examiner was substantial with weighted kappa values ranging from 0.74 to 0.77. The photographic method indicated higher specificity (99%) than sensitivity (79%) and the area under the ROC curve was also high (0.89) which suggests good accuracy of the diagnostic test. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that photographic examination of fluorosis on central incisors can be recorded with good examiner reliability. The recorded fluorosis prevalence was lower using the photographic scores.

Job satisfaction and perceived future roles of Malaysian dental therapists: findings from a national survey.

OBJECTIVE: To assess Malaysian dental therapists' perceptions of their job satisfaction and future roles. METHODS: A nationwide postal survey involving all Malaysian dental therapists who met the inclusion criteria (n = 1726). RESULTS: The response rate was 76.8%. All respondents were females; mean age 35.4 years (SD = 8.4). Majority were married (85.5%) and more than one-half had a working experience of <10 years (56.1%). Majority worked in community dental service (94.3%) and in urban areas (61.7%). Overall, they were highly satisfied with most aspects of their career. However, they were least satisfied with administrative workload (58.1%), career advancement opportunities (51.9%) and remuneration package; specifically income (45.2%), allowances (45.2%) and non-commensurate between pay and performance (44.0%). Majority perceived their role as very important in routine clinical tasks such as examination and diagnosis, preventive treatment, extraction of deciduous teeth and oral health promotion. However, fewer than one-half consider complex treatment such as placement of preformed crowns on deciduous teeth (37.1%) and extraction of permanent teeth (37.2%) as very important tasks. CONCLUSION: Majority expressed high career satisfaction with most aspects of their employment but expressed low satisfaction in remuneration, lack of career advancement opportunities and administrative tasks. We conclude that most Malaysian dental therapists have positive perceptions of their current roles but do not favour wider expansion of their roles. These findings imply that there was a need to develop a more attractive career pathway for therapists to ensure sustainability of effective primary oral healthcare delivery system for Malaysia's children.