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Errors in the assessment of pocket depth in vitro
Author(s) -
Velden U.
Publication year - 1978
Publication title -
journal of clinical periodontology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.456
H-Index - 151
eISSN - 1600-051X
pISSN - 0303-6979
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-051x.1978.tb02278.x
Subject(s) - in vitro , dentistry , medicine , computational biology , biology , biochemistry
. The inaccuracy of the calibration of two Merritt‐B probes, old and new style, was investigated. It appeared that the calibration of the Merritt‐B “new style” probe was better than the calibration of the old one. The influence of the mode of calibration and the reading of the calibration on pocket depth assessment with a Merritt‐B “old style” probe was studied in an in vitro model. The model consisted of 32 aluminium cubes each with a hole in the centre. The holes were 1 mm in cross‐section and the depth varied from 0.25 mm to 8 mm in 0.25‐mm increments. Results show that pocket depths of 1 mm to 8 mm ±0.25 mm generally were read correctly about 90 % of the lime. This was not true for the 4‐ and 6‐mm areas. When a probe was used where the 4‐ and 6‐mm marks were omitted, pocket depths in that area were read correctly only in about 60 % of instances. This difference disappeared when the 4‐ and 6‐mm marks were added. Results of measuring the half millimeter values showed that generally 80 % were recorded as the lower whole millimeter.