THE EFFECT OF A TRAINING-PROGRAM ON THE RELIABILITY OF EXAMINERS EVALUATING AMALGAM RESTORATIONS

There have been long-term problems in establishing agreement among cli nical and preclinical examiners in dentistry. The purpose of this stud y was to develop a training program and study its effect on examiner a greement when judging the clinical serviceability of amalgam restorati ons. Ten examiners with varying backgrounds, levels of experience, and no previous training with methods to standardize clinical evaluation evaluated 44 amalgam restorations in 17 patients before and after a br ief training session. The restorations were judged as either acceptabl e (leave alone), or unacceptable (replacement or alteration required). The training program was brief and consisted of the introduction of a rating scale with descriptive criteria, followed by a clinical sessio n where the examiners practiced using the rating scale and criteria to arrive at operational decisions. Interexaminer and intraexaminer agre ement were calculated for both evaluation sessions. The training progr am improved the reliability of the examiners evaluating the clinical s erviceability of the amalgam restorations. Although the gain was not t o the level commonly accepted in the literature, it clearly demonstrat es a step in the right direction.