Developing a schedule of normative denture treatment need.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study is to assess the reliability and validity of a schedule to determine the normative denture treatment needs of older people. DESIGN: The design used assessed inter-examiner reliability (criterion validity), test-retest reliability, and content and face validity of the schedule. SETTING: The inter-examiner reliability study took place in a Department of Prosthetic Dentistry, the remainder of the work took place in a community setting. RESULTS: The results showed that the schedule in terms of an index performed well with reasonable inter-examiner and test-retest reliability. Difficulties however were encountered with regard to subjective judgements about denture quality and design; consequently, there was modest inter-examiner agreement for stability, retention, and occlusal balance. CONCLUSIONS: The findings from this preliminary work suggest that the schedule may be useful in the assessment of normative denture treatment need in a community setting. Nevertheless more work will be required to obtain further information on the validity of this new assessment measure.