THE VALIDITY OF THE CPITN SCORING AND PRESENTATION METHOD FOR MEASURING PERIODONTAL CONDITIONS

The CPITN is used widely in estimating periodontal treatment needs and , in many cases also to make generalizations about periodontal disease . It is therefore imperative that the heirarchical scoring method used to allocate CPITN scores is validated, and that the presentation of C PITN data reflect the true distribution of periodontal conditions. Dat a from one study carried out in Melbourn Australia and one in Jakarta, Indonesia were used to compare CPITN scores on a mouth, sextant and t ooth basis. Clinical periodontal components were compared with CPITN s cores to establish the validity of the CPITN hierarchical scoring meth od. The distributions of CPITN scores varied widely on a mouth, sextan t and tooth basis, and CPITN scores frequently differed from those ind icated by the periodontal components. It was concluded that CPITN data should be presented not only as the % of subjects with each score, bu t also as the % of sextants, and, if possible, the % of tooth sites wi th each CPITN score. It was also concluded that there is an advantage in measuring components (calculus and bleeding) as well as CPITN in or der to limit the overestimation of treatment needs, particularly for a nterior teeth.