In order to examine the consistency of orthodontic care, the pretreatment dental records (radiographs, study models, and photos) of four patients representative of the range of Class II division I malocclusions were examined by two groups of specialists and then checked against their Handicapping Labiolingual Index (HLD). The first group of 42 specialists used both the dental aesthetic index (DAI) and a ten-point visual-analog (Likert-type) scale, to assess the treatment difficulty of the cases. The second group of 241 volunteer specialists simply assessed these cases against the Likert-type scale. The results not only showed s gnificant variation in case-assessments between different specialists, but also significant contrasts depending on the index used for their assessment. These conflicts were illustrated by Case a severe malocclusion (with a palatally impinging overbite, >9mm severe overjet, and a posterior bilateral crossbite. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)