Guidelines developed for educational institutions by the American Association of Dental Schools (AADS) as curriculum development aids are presented. The need for the dentist to be properly trained in the physical evaluation of patients is emphasized. (MLW)

A study undertaken to explore how dentists use patient data to plan treatment is presented. Three hundred forty-six general dentists used oral and general health findings to determine periodontal treatment for seven prototypic elderly patients. The results indicated that oral hygiene and major medications best discriminated between treatment…

A program in peer review and quality assessment at the University of Michigan denture department is described. The program exposes students to peer review in order to assess the quality of their treatment. (Author/MLW)

Dental students were videotaped presenting a child's case presentation to a parent. Students who viewed a model videotape demonstrated a significant improvement in performance from their first presentation. Students who evaluated their own tape showed no significant improvement. (Author/MLW)

Two studies investigated interrater agreement among 10 clinical dental examiners who scored residual subgingival calculus after student scaling on 4,160 real and 92 manikin tooth surfaces. Interrater reliability was low. Results suggest a need in periodontics for effective examiner calibration methods and objective subgingival calculus detection…