LOWER 3RD MOLAR TREATMENT PLANNING ABILITY OF GENERAL DENTAL PRACTITIONERS AND ORAL MAXILLOFACIAL SURGEONS USING RECEIVER OPERATING CHARACTERISTICS METHODOLOGY

A comparison of lower third molar treatment planning ability of six or al and maxillofacial surgeons (three consultants, two senior registrar s and one senior house officer) and 27 general dental practitioners wa s carried out using Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) methodolo gy. Each clinician was presented with the same series of 50 case histo ries and asked to indicate, using a rating scale, how certain they wer e that each lower third molar required removal. These data, together w ith NIH gold standard treatment decisions for each third molar, were t hen used to construct ROC curves for each clinician and, using combine d data, to produce ROC curves for the groups of hospital specialists a nd general dental practitioners. These curves were then compared stati stically. There were significant differences between the best and wors t practitioners, both in the hospital service and within general denta l practice. When combined data were examined, however, there was no st atistical difference in the treatment planning ability of hospital spe cialists and general dental practitioners. These findings indicate tha t lower third molar treatment planning ability is more dependent upon individual factors than specialist training. Further, the data present ed here suggest that general dental practitioners are as capable of tr eatment planning for lower third molars as the specialists to whom the y refer.