PREDICTexpert questionnaire

PREDICT study · questionnaire for experienced dentists

What has experience taught you about complete dentures?

We ask you to share which anatomical features help, and which hinder, the success of a complete denture. Completing it takes about 25–35 minutes.

Dear Colleague,

Our predecessors and teachers taught from experience which anatomical features are favourable and which are unfavourable for the success of a complete denture. In the PREDICT study we want to collect this experiential knowledge from several experienced colleagues and compare it with measured patient data.

There are no right or wrong answers. We are not asking about the textbook but about your own experience with patients, even where it differs from what you were taught. If you are unsure about something, mark that rather than guessing: uncertainty is valuable information too.

What do we call a successful denture?

A denture is successful if, in the six months after delivery, the patient wears it regularly, can eat with it, has no serious pain or pressure complaints, and is satisfied with it.

For every question, imagine two otherwise similar patients who differ only in this one feature: similar age, similar general health, dentures made with the same care.

How to answer

We ask about sixteen anatomical features, and the same few things for each:

  1. Which variant is worse? We describe two variants (A and B). You can also mark that there is no real difference, or that you cannot judge.
  2. How sure are you? 50 %: like tossing a coin. 90 %: nine times out of ten. 99 %: almost certain.
  3. A hundred patients. If you saw 100 patients with one variant and 100 with the other, how many would have a successful denture in each group? For example: 85 of 100 patients with a high ridge, 60 of 100 with a low ridge. The difference is then 25 patients in a hundred.
  4. At least and at most. How large could this difference be at the least and at the most? Give limits outside which you would be very surprised.

Your answers are saved automatically. You can stop at any time and continue later on the same computer. For each feature we describe how we record it in the study, so that we are thinking of the same thing.

Data handling

Only the investigator sees your name, so that we know whom we asked. Answers are identified by a code (SZ01, SZ02 …) and used only pooled together with the answers of the other colleagues. No individual answer is published with a name.