Stress reactions of various judging groups to the child dental patient.

Dental personnel representing various levels of clinical experience and education in pedodontics were shown slides of potentially stressing situations within the field of pedodontics. Stress was identified through voice analysis by the Psychological Stress Evaluator (PSE-101). Clinical experience and education in pedodontics does not decrease either absolute or relative amounts of stress. Visual stimuli are capable of eliciting a stressful response. Trained raters can interpret voice prints with a satisfactory degree of inter-rater reliability. The PSE-101 is a valid indicator of stress.

An admissions interview to measure "good" dentist attributes.

This study reports on the validity of a structured, standardized interview designed for selecting applicants for dental schools. The interview provides a score on nongrade attributes in 14 dimensions and was based on characteristics of successful dentists. A class of 86 fourth-year dental students at the University of Iowa was interviewed. Sufficient validity was found to justify the use of the interview for admissions purposes for the 1978 class.

Reliability of scaling error detection.

Reliability of scaling error detection among dental hygiene instructors is a basis for grade equity. This study tested statistically (ANOVA) grading reliability and variance factors using ten students' scaling performance scores while treating 34 patients. Nine instructors were grouped according to experience, and the patients were grouped according to four difficulty levels. The interinstructor differences were significant in the inexperienced group only. Variance analysis implied that 26 to 94 percent of the grade given is due to instructor differences rather than the students' performances. Experienced graduate students graded most consistently (26 percent of variance due to instructor differences) while faculty were less consistent (64 percent) and inexperienced graduate students exhibited marked inconsistency (94 percent). Error detection appeared to be more closely related to the instructors' educational background than to experience. Results of the study suggest the need for clinical rotation of instructors as well as for instructor calibration.

A comparison of two methods for evaluating primary class II cavity preparations.

An analytical system for evaluating class II cavity preparations in primary teeth was developed and tested and then compared with the traditional global (glance and grade) evaluation method with respect to intraexaminer and interexaminer reliability. Fifteen examiners with varied experience in clinical evaluation rated 24 class II cavity preparations in ivorine¿ primary teeth mounted in dentoforms¿ in a simulated clinical setting. The global method of scoring was compared to an analytical system consisting of a rating scale with five operationally-defined points for each of 10 specifically-defined performance criteria. Interexaminer reliability was improved with the analytical system which also provides a means for facilitating student feedback and learning. The gain in reliability was not tested for statistical significance.

Influence of instructional methods on student achievement and attitude in an introductory endodontic course.

1. Self-paced instruction did not improve performance in raw score on achievement by a different amount for each achievement level, but it did bring all the students to the same level of performance as the group-paced treatment in less time. 2. Permitting the self-paced students to take quizzes when they felt prepared improved student performance. 3. Self-paced instruction lends itself readily to flexible scheduling and thus permitted high achievers to complete the course sooner and allowed new students to start the course at any time. 4. The slide-tape method also freed the instructor from formal lectures and thus permitted him to spend one additional hour (the unused discussion hour) each week in laboratory exercises with the students.

The effect of instructor variance on students' grades.

Students' scores and subsequent grades for clinical courses should reflect their performance. The scores are dependent in part on the reliability of faculty evaluations. Large variance in instructor scoring could unduly affect students' final grades. This study investigated the effect on students' scores of instructor variance in clinical evaluation. The results indicated that instructor variance was responsible for 11 percent of the variance in students' final scores. The remainder of the differences resulted from differences in student performance. More than one half of the students' grades would have been either higher or lower if the scores assigned by one or more individual instructors had been excluded. For all but one student the net change in total scores was less than one standard deviation. The authors conclude that the students' grades were reliable and that individual differences among instructors did not unduly affect the students' final scores.

The admission interview: the validity question.

This study reports on the validity of a structured, standardized admission interview for dentistry. An entire class of 86 fourth-year dental students at The University of Iowa was studied, and the relationships between information from the interview, faculty ratings, and numerous dental and predental academic data were compared. Many correlations were found to be significant, which permitted technical description of three aspects of validity: concurrent, content, and construct. Reliability of both the instrument and the interview method were shown to affect validity.

A revision of the Hixon and Oldfather mixed-dentition prediction method.

A revision of the Hixon and Oldfather prediction method was undertaken with measurements obtained from persons who participated in the Iowa Facial Growth Study, the same group of subjects used originally by Hixon and Oldfather to develop their prediction equation. A significantly improved prediction equation was developed. A graph was made for clinical use in the prediction of mandibular canine and premolar widths in mixed-dentition patients.

Marginal leakage: entry side and exit side-clinical implications.

The marginal leakage along the proximal walls of Class II amalgam restorations was studied. The influence of the direction of the bur rotation to tooth structure in cavity preparation was the primary concern of investigation. Also, the effect of different cavity wall finishing techniques created by exit and entry action of the rotating bur and that of two different types of amalgam on the marginal leakage was studied. The degree of marginal leakage was not significantly different among any of the treatment groups.

Bond strength of cements to crown bases.

Amalgam crown bases provided more bond strength to cements than composite resin and cast gold. Modified zinc oxide-eugenol and polycarboxylate cements served better with composite resin bases. Modified zinc oxide-eugenol cement bonded to cast gold better than polycarboxylate and zinc phosphate cements. Polycarboxylate cement bonded to amalgam better than modified zinc oxide-eugenol and zinc phosphate cements. Amalgam was the material of choice for a crown base.

Staining calcified dental tissues with food.

The discoloration of enamel caused by food substances was found to be superficial and for dentin and cementum ingressive. Discoloration of cementum exceeded that of dentin, and dentin stained more than enamel. Coffee and soy sauce stained the calcified dental tissues more than the cola beverage and tea. The longer the staining time, the deeper was the discoloration.

Analysis of interpretations of full-mouth and panoramic surveys.

The purposes of this study were to determine differences in interpretation of radiographic findings of full-mouth and panoramic surveys by junior and senior dental students and differences in their interpretive skills. The parameters of interest were caries, incipiencies, lamina dura interruptions, periodontal membrane changes, and periapical bone changes. The questions to be answered regarding the differences between the full-mouth and panoramic surveys were: (1) In which type of radiograph were the most lesions found? (2) In which type of radiograph are the most "non-existing" lesions found? (3) In which type of radiograph are the most lesions undetected? (4) Does the junior or senior dental student demonstrate the most accuracy in his interpretation?