The Feasibility and Validity of Orthodontic Screening of Children in Their Tenth Year

The study set out to investigate the problems of the implementation of the Court Report's suggestion that every child in its tenth year should be screened for orthodontic treatment by ‘a dentist with special training in orthodontics’ using Grainger's Treatment Priority Index (TPI). The study was divided into two parts. The standardization exercises used 31 orthodontic models of children in their tenth year. The problem of examiner variability, using a Community Dental Officer instead of an orthodontist and of bias that the TPI might have were examined. The main study involved the examination of 362 children in ten separate schools in Oxfordshire and investigated the problem of orthodontic screening at annual school inspections. The findings showed that the TPI may be able to provide a method for screening children in their tenth year if the weights of the clinical entities which are reducing the level of validity of the TPI are identified. The problem of scoring tooth displacements consistently would have to be taken into consideration when training personnel to use the TPI.