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A new study suggests that dental hygienists and therapists should be used to screen for dental caries and periodontal disease in a bid to improve the giam dau khop man tinh delivery of primary dental health care.

The findings of the report - The Efficacy of Screening for Common Dental Diseases by Hygiene-Therapists A Diagnostic Test Accuracy Study1 - has important ramifications for service design in public-funded health systems.

And the results have been welcomed by Fiona Sandom, president of the British Association of Dental Therapists (BADT), who sees it as a major step towards a much more efficient use of the skill mix of the dental team.

Lead author, Richard Macey, research assistant at Manchester's School of Dentistry, explained: 'Researchers here at the School of Dentistry have been examining whether dental care professionals (DCPs) can screen for common oral disorders.

'The research is part of a five-year programme that is supported by a NIHR Clinician Scientist award granted to Dr Paul Brocklehurst to examine the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of role substitution in primary dental care.

'We now have the results of the main study which recruited 1,899 asymptomatic patients into 10 dental practices across the north west of England. giam dau khop tu nhien Before their full check-up, patients saw a dental hygienist and therapist (H&T) and a general dental practitioner (GDP) for a screening assessment. Clinicians were asked to decide whether the patient screened positive for dental caries or periodontal disease and so required further investigation.

'The results show a comparable performance between H&Ts and GDPs and demonstrated H&Ts can screen for the two principal dental diseases.

'In particular, H&Ts were good at identifying those patients the GDP had confirmed were caries free (specificity 0.87) and at identifying periodontal disease where the dentists confirmed its presence (sensitivity 0.89).'

The results of the study - in which 1899 patients were screened - are published in the Journal of Dental Research.

Richard Macey believes these findings, coupled with the recent GDC regulatory change permitting direct access to DCPs, opens up the potent