Carl L. Bandt

Periodontal evaluation of canines erupted through grafted alveolar cleft defects.

Two to eight years after receiving autogenous iliac crest grafts for treatment of alveolar cleft defects, eighteen patients who had unilateral cleft palate were evaluated for their periodontal status. When cleft-associated canines were compared with contralateral control canines, no statistically significant differences were found between specific surface values for plaque index, gingival index, or probing depths. Attachment loss was found to be greater (less than 0.72 mm) on the mesio-facial, facial, and mesio-palatal surfaces of the cleft-associated canines than on the control canines. Fifty-six per cent of the cleft-associated canines required surgical exposure and 44% also required orthodontic assistance to erupt to a functional occlusion. Osseous grafting of alveolar cleft defects resulted in satisfactory clinical periodontal support for cleft-associated canines.

The Effective Use of a Self-Teaching Oral Hygiene Manual

TOOTH MOBILITY CHANGES IN RESPONSE TO OCCLUSAL

Determining Congruence between Teaching Intentions, Student Expectations, and Evaluation Practices

Periodic review and analysis of didactic achievement tests are essential parts of the process of improving teaching, learning, and testing programs. This study describes a method for determining the degree of cognitive congruence between teaching intentions, student expectations, and testing practices. A three-category model (recall, comprehension, and application) adopted from Blooms Taxonomy was used to survey periodontology faculty and thirdyear dental students regarding their opinion of how test questions should be distributed. Actual distribution of test items used to evaluate student didactic achievement were also categorized by three raters. In addition, item difficulty and discrimination were calculated for each category of items andfor each course. Faculty recommended a distribution heavily weighted in favor of comprehension and applicationtype items, while the actual distribution and student recommendations favored recall-type items. Recall and comprehension questions were equal in terms of difficulty and discrimination. However, application items were less difficult and had the lowest discrimination. The approach used in this study resulted in information useful for planning future test construction.