CLINICAL ASSISTANT TRAINING IN ORTHODONTICS - HOW EFFECTIVE IS IT

Objective To investigate the quantity and the quality of orthodontic t reatment carried out by dentists who have completed a 2-year orthodont ic clinical assistant training programme. Design Retrospective analysi s. Subjects and methods During a 12-month period the volume of orthodo ntic treatments completed by 18 dentists who had participated in a cli nical assistant training scheme was analysed. Using study models the i nitial need for treatment and the outcome of treatment of a consecutiv e sample of each dentist's completed cases were assessed. Main outcome measures IOTN and PAR indices used by expert examiners. Results The m edian number of cases treated by the dentists was 37 with a range of 2 to 488. No significant predictive variables were associated with the higher volume operators. Of the 166 orthodontic cases evaluated 72.9% had a definite dental health need for orthodontic treatment. Following treatment the mean post-treatment PAR score for the whole sample was 9.2 (median = 8.0). Thirteen (72%) of the dentists had an average post -treatment PAR score of 10 or less.Conclusions The outcomes achieved b y the Northern Irish clinical assistants were similar to those reporte d for other clinical assistant schemes. A significant proportion of th e dentists treated a relatively low volume of patients and two of the dentists treated a very high volume of cases.