Advances in Dental Research, Vol 7, 152-157, Copyright © 1993 by International & American Associations for Dental Research
The strategy and advantage in use of an electronic probe for attachment measurement
W. B. Clark, I. Magnusson, Y. Y. Namgung and M. C. Yang
Department of Oral Biology, Periodontal Disease Research Center, Gainesville, Florida 32610.
Attachment level has been used as the "gold standard" for assessment of the
progression of periodontal disease. However, the measurement of attachment
level by periodontal probing can be subject to a large number of error
sources. Recently, we have designed experiments by using an electronic
probe to identify the magnitude of error components due to the instrument,
gingival tissue condition, position or probing angle, and time interval
between replicate probings. Even with a very careful clinical setting, a
few percent of uncontrollable large errors or outliers could not be
avoided. A previously used 'option-3' probing scheme to reduce the
unexpected large error is justified from the mathematical viewpoint.
