The feasibility of data collection in dental practices, using codes for the International Caries Detection and Assessment System (ICDAS), to allow European general dental practitioners to monitor dental caries at local, national, and international levels.

Aim: To determine whether or not European general dental practitioners can carry out comprehensive dental caries assessments of the teeth of selected quotas of their patients during routine dental check-ups, as an alternative or complement to the work of specialised, salaried, dental epidemiologists.

Methods: Dentists from several European countries were invited by local coordinators to be trained to carry out dental disease assessments. For caries, they used the International Caries Detection and Assessment System (ICDAS), as part of a wider oral health indicators project with a European perspective.

A randomised controlled trial to explore attitudes to routine scale and polish and compare manual versus ultrasonic scaling in the general dental service in Scotland [ISRCTN99609795].

Background: To investigate, within general dental practice, patients' and vocational dental practitioners' (VDP) attitudes towards the benefits and costs of a simple scale and polish and to compare the experience of using manual versus ultrasonic instruments to scale teeth.

Methods: 28 VDPs and 420 patients participated. Patients were randomly allocated to either group.