Preparing for practice - calibration of dental undergraduate students in the Index of Orthodontic Treatment Need.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to establish the success in calibrating dental students in the use of the Index of Orthodontic Treatment Need (IOTN). DESIGN: Single-centre, evaluation of teaching study. SETTING: University department, UK, 2013. SUBJECTS AND METHOD: Third-year dental students were divided into four groups and received IOTN instruction via clinical and non-clinical teaching over a three-month period. This was followed by a calibration exercise where the whole year assessed 30 study models for orthodontic treatment need using the dental health component (DHC) and modified aesthetic component (AC) of the IOTN. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Student IOTN scores were compared to a gold standard using kappa statistics (κ). RESULTS: Results showed that although substantial agreement was achieved in both the DHC (κ = 0.65) and a modified AC (unweighted κ = 0.63), the year only calibrated successfully in the DHC. CONCLUSION: Third year dental students taught at Cardiff University applied the DHC of IOTN better than the AC.