%0 Journal Article %T Reliability and validity of self-assessment of mouth opening: a validation study %A Saund Daniel Satnam Singh %A Pearson David %A Dietrich Thomas %J BMC Oral Health %D 2012 %I BioMed Central %R 10.1186/1472-6831-12-48 %X Background The objective of this study was to evaluate the reproducibility and validity of patientsĄ¯ mouth opening measurements in a research setting. Methods Firstly, 68 patients made repeated self-measurements of mouth opening using a cardboard scale (Therabite Range of Motion Scale ¨C TRMS). Secondly, 80 patients enrolled in a clinical trial on morbidity after lower third molar surgery, made daily assessments during the postoperative week. PatientsĄ¯ measurements were then compared to gold-standard cliniciansĄ¯ measurements. Results Reliability of patientsĄ¯ measurements was excellent with an intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.92. The patientĄ¯s measurements correlated well with the gold-standard clinicianĄ¯s measurements, both for the first 68 patients (PearsonĄ¯s rho ranging from 0.86 to 0.90, p < 0.0001) as well as for the 80 patients enrolled in the clinical trial (rho = 0.82, p < 0.0001 at day 2, rho = 0.83, p < 0.0001 at final visit). Conclusions TRMS can be used by patients to produce reproducible and valid mouth opening measurements. %K Reproducibility %K Validity %K Measurement %K Scale %K TheraBite %U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6831/12/48