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Within‐Mouth Correlations and Reliabilities for Probing Depth and Attachment Level
Author(s) -
Fleiss Joseph L.,
Park Molly H.,
Chilton Neal W.
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
journal of periodontology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.036
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1943-3670
pISSN - 0022-3492
DOI - 10.1902/jop.1987.58.7.460
Subject(s) - statistics , depth perception , psychology , dentistry , mathematics , medicine , perception , neuroscience
Replicate measurements of probing depth and attachment level were made by three examiners on the six Ramfjord teeth of 34 patients. Within‐mouth correlations were high for single measurements, and yet higher for means across replicate measurements. Interand intra‐examiner variability were both found to be low relative to between‐patient variability. Conclusions are that the low within‐mouth correlations reported by others may be the result of poor reliability, and that it is inappropriate to take the individual site as the unit of statistical analysis in clinical studies of periodontitis.