Developing and assessing the efficiency of VOSER software in recording dental caries according to WHO's criteria 2013

Khoa Dang Nguyen, Hong Thi Phuong Doan, Hung Trong Hoang*, Nam Cong Nhat Huynh, Ming Lun Hsu, May Chun Mei Wong

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Background/purpose: World Health Organization (WHO) oral health survey manual is the main guideline for most oral health surveys worldwide. It has been updated several times since 1971; however, using papers and pens for data recording remains unchanged. This study aimed to develop the Vietnam Oral Survey Electronics Recorder (VOSER) to record dental caries data based on the WHO 2013 criteria and assess its reliability and efficiency. Materials and methods: VOSER was developed and tested for reliability and efficiency by performing clinical examinations on 365 school children in three key indicator age groups: 120 5-year-old students with primary dentition, 123 8-year-old students with mixed dentition, and 122 12-year-old students with permanent dentition. One gold standard examiner and two trained clerks examined these children using either WHO's paper survey form or VOSER's digital form for dental caries. Recording time, spreadsheet time, DMFT/S, and dmft/s were analyzed to compare the efficiency of VOSER to the paper form. Cohen's Kappa, intraclass correlation coefficient, and Wilcoxon signed-rank test were adopted in the data analyses. Results: Median time of using VOSER was significantly shorter than the standard time in all three dentitions (P < 0.001). Cohen's Kappa values between data collected by VOSER and paper form showed almost perfect agreements (0.927–0.958). DMFT/S and dmft/s values calculated from data collected by both methods had good to excellent reliabilities (0.791–0.997). Conclusion: VOSER is efficient and reliable for conducting dental caries surveys according to the WHO 2013 criteria and should be utilized in the era of digital technology.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1822-1829
Number of pages8
JournalJournal of Dental Sciences
Volume18
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 2023

Keywords

  • DMF index
  • Dental caries
  • Oral health
  • Software
  • Surveys and questionnaires

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