Even though some instruments and methods exhibited good to excellent reliability and validity and can be recommended for research and clinical practice , they do not allow assessing all components of physical oral health .
OBJECTIVE This study aim ed at exploring available clinical instruments and methods for assessing physical oral health , and at identifying those with sufficient diagnostic performance .
The Dutch periodontal screening index validation and its application in The Netherlands.
OBJECTIVE To provide evidence that the Dutch periodontal screening index ( DPSI ) is a valuable tool for the screening of the periodontal status and to evaluate the application of the DPSI by general practitioners in the Netherl and s. MATERIAL AND METHODS To assess the validity of the DPSI , an available data set was used consisting of 131 subjects with various degrees of periodontal breakdown in whom plaque , calculus , pocket depth , bleeding on probing and attachment loss was evaluated at all inter-proximal sites . The application of the DPSI in general practice was studied in a r and om sample of 300 practising dentists in the Netherl and s by means of a question naire . RESULTS Full-mouth inter-proximal measurements showed that 19.1 % of the subjects had > or=6 mm attachment loss at > or=2 sites . The DPSI identified 100 % of the subjects with this condition . The results of the survey question naire showed that about 75 % of the general dental practitioners were applying the DPSI  , although only 15.1 % were performing this consistently when a regular check-up was performed . The mean time required for the assessment of the DPSI  was 3 min . CONCLUSION The DPSI is valuable tool for the screening of the periodontal condition during general dental check-ups
Even though some instruments and methods exhibited good to excellent reliability and validity and can be recommended for research and clinical practice , they do not allow assessing all components of physical oral health .
OBJECTIVE This study aim ed at exploring available clinical instruments and methods for assessing physical oral health , and at identifying those with sufficient diagnostic performance .