Abstract
OBJECTIVE:
To
estimate bias associated with partial-mouth periodontal examination
(PMPE) protocols regarding estimates of prevalence, severity and extent
of clinical attachment loss (CAL), pocket depth (PD) and gingival
recession (REC).
MATERIAL AND METHODS:
A search was made
for articles published in English, from 1946 to 2012, which compared
PMPE versus full-mouth periodontal examination protocols for CAL or
PD ≥ 4 mm or REC ≥3 mm thresholds. PMPE protocols were evaluated for
sensitivity of estimates of periodontitis prevalence, relative biases
for severity and extent estimates.
RESULTS:
A review of
the literature identified 12 studies which reported 32 PMPE protocols.
Three PMPE protocols which had sensitivities ≥85% and relative biases
≤0.05 in absolute values for severity and extent estimates were as
follows: (1) half-mouth six-sites, (2) diagonal quadrants six-sites and
(3) full-mouth mesiobuccal-midbuccal-distobuccal (MB-B-DB). Two other
PMPE protocols (full-mouth and half-mouth
mesiobuccal-midbuccal-distolingual) performed well for prevalence and
severity of periodontitis; however, their performance in estimates of
extent was unknown.
CONCLUSIONS:
Among the 32 PMPE protocols listed, the half-mouth six-sites and full-mouth MB-B-DB protocols had the highest sensitivities for prevalence estimates
and lowest relative biases for severity and extent estimates.
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