COMPARISON OF ORAL HEALTH RATINGS BY DENTISTS AND DENTATE ELDERS

Previous studies suggest a discrepancy between the way dentists and pa tients measure oral health. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between a dentist's rating of an older dentate perso n's oral health and the patient self-rating using a single-item indica tor, and to compare the clinical (i.e., number of teeth, caries, etc.) and subjective (problems with function, pain, etc.) factors that infl uence the rating. The study sample consisted of 776 older dentate peop le. Results showed that dentists judged subjects' oral health signific antly more positively than the self-ratings. Approximately 30 percent of the elders rated their oral health identically to the dentist and h alf rated their oral health lower than the dentist. Bivariate comparis ons showed that similar clinical and subjective variables were associa ted with the dentist and patient ratings. Multiple regression findings , however, highlighted differences in the factors that influenced the ratings. In addition, the proportion of variance accounted for by the clinical factors as opposed to the subjective factors was greater for the dentist rating (R(2)=.28 of.33) than the subject self-rating (R(2) =.18 of.43).