Dear doctors
In dentistry, we have a DMFT index for a dental caries, it is a discrete variable.
DMFT and DMFS describe the amount - the prevalence - of dental caries in an individual. DMFT and DMFS are means to numerically express the caries prevalence and are obtained by calculating the number of
teeth (T) or surfaces (S).
It is thus used to get an estimation illustrating how much the dentition until the day of examination has become affected by dental caries. It is either calculated for 28 (permanent) teeth, excluding 18, 28, 38 and 48 (the "wisdom" teeth) or for 32 teeth. http://www.whocollab.od.mah.se/expl/orhdmft.html
For a trial, this requires careful training and monitoring of the individuals performing the examination. We have to standardized a 5 dentist. The question is how many teeth? or patient? is necesary that any dentist examine versus a gold standart(dentist WHO calibrated)
Some one know how to make calculations required for sample size for the agreement studies?
Many thanks in avanced
Luis fernando gamboa
Dentist
Bogota Colombia
South America