An assignment of the inter‐ and intra‐ examiner agreement in scoring gingivities clinically

Three inexperienced examiners received progressively intensive training in the use of the PMA and Gingival Indices. Each examiner achieved intra‐examiner reliability with each index after only a short period of instruction. No consistent pattern of inter‐examiner agreement was evident until the examiners had received extensive training which included clinical instructions by an examiner with a good knowledge of the indices. A high degree of correlation was found between the PMA and GI scores for an individual which suggested that the two different methods of assessing ‘so‐called’ severity produce similar results. It was concluded that the Gingival Index system had the advantage that clear mandatory instructions had been laid down for its use. All reports of studies using either index should contain information on the intra‐ and inter‐examiner reliability achieved.