UNDERSTANDING DIAGNOSTIC TESTING FOR PERIODONTAL-DISEASES

PROBABILITY COMPUTATIONS ARE USED to characterize new periodontal diag nostic tests and are an integral facet of risk assessment for periodon tal diseases. However, misinterpretation of these data can result in c onfusion and erroneous conclusions regarding the relationship of test results to the presence or absence of disease in a subject, or to epis odes of periodontal destruction at specific sites. This paper was writ ten to provide clinicians with a primer to help in understanding calcu lations used to evaluate diagnostic tests and risk assessment.