An investigation into the use of a dental hygienist in school screening

Objective A pilot study to measure the validity of using a hygienist to carry out school screening. Design Following a standard training programme a dental hygienist (DH), recruited from general practice, a newly appointed dental officer (DO) and an epidemiologist (SDO), who acted as the standard, all screened the same group of school children on two occasions. Setting An inner city school with known high levels of disease. Participants Ninety-eight 7- and 8-year-old children attending school. Main outcome measures For each clinician the levels of referral, the reasons for referral and the repeatability were measured. Results The hygienist referred 26 children (27%) fur further examination while the DO and the SDO both referred 61 (62%). The DO achieved the required standards of sensitivity and specificity when results were compared with the SDO but the hygienist did not. Intra-examiner reliability in all three clinicians was good. Conclusions The standard training programme used to prepare dental officers to tarry out school screening to an agreed standard was insufficient for this hygienist's needs.