Standardizing Evaluations of the Clinical Marginal Fracture of Amalgam

In this study, we investigated both inter-examiner and intra-examiner differences in the evaluation of the marginal fracture characteristics of dental amalgam restorations. Evaluations were made by matching intra-oral photographs ofthe occlusal surfaces ofclinical restorations to a reference set ofclinical photographs illustrating increasing amounts of marginal fracture. Four amalgam alloys and five examiners pro-vided the data base. Differences in marginal fracture indices were found among examiners and between evaluation times for the same examiners. However, these differences were reduced significantly after application of a standardization procedure