Derek Richards

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Derek Richards is a specialist in dental public health, Director of the Centre for Evidence-Based Dentistry and Specialist Advisor to the Scottish Dental Clinical Effectiveness Programme (SDCEP) Development Team. A former editor of the Evidence-Based Dentistry Journal and chief blogger for the Dental Elf website until December 2023. Derek has been involved with a wide range of evidence-based initiatives both nationally and internationally since 1994. Derek retired from the NHS in 2019 remaining as a part-time senior lecturer at Dundee Dental School until the end of 2023.

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Home visits and telephone contacts reduced early childhood caries in a low socio-economic area

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Early childhood caries (ECC) remains an important clinical challenge so a range of preventive approaches have been used. The aims of this study were to investigate the efficacy of  home visits (HV) compared with  telephone contacts (TC) and no contact (NC) in reducing ECC , Mutans streptococcus (MS) levels and lactobacilli(LB) colonisation in children from [read the full story…]

Changes to the mouth following tooth extraction

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Tooth extraction is the most common surgical procedure and is associated with changes to the supporting structures. The aim of this review was to assess the magnitude of dimensional change of both the hard and soft tissues of the alveolar ridges after tooth extraction. The Medline and Cochrane Central databases were searched and a selection [read the full story…]

Rubber dam use for children's dental treatment reduced patient and operator stress

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Rubber dam is recommended for isolating the working field during adhesive dentistry procedures. However, dentists often omit rubber dam, particularly in paediatric dentistry, supposing that it would stress the patient. The aim of this study was to evaluate subjective and objective stress parameters in children and adolescents during dental treatment when using rubber dam compared [read the full story…]

How clean is your toothbrush?

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The aim of this review was to evaluate the cumulative state of knowledge related to toothbrush contamination, its possible role in disease transmission, and in preparation for a research study related to toothbrush contamination in critically ill adults. The Pub Med, CINAHL, Cochrane Library, National Guidelines Clearinghouse, Web of Science, and Google Scholar databases were [read the full story…]

Tranexamic acid is effective in controlling blood loss in orthognathic surgery

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Conservation of blood is important in all forms of surgery and approximately 30% of patietns undergoing bimaxillary osteotomies require a transfusion. The aim of this trial was to assess the effect of tranexamic acid on blood loss, quality of surgical field and duration of surgery compared to the effect of nitroglycerin induced moderate hypotension alone [read the full story…]

keratocystic odontogenic tumour recurrence rates

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The keratocystic odontogenic tumour (KCOT, odontogenic keratocyst (OKC)) was first described in the literature in 1956 and is classified by the World Health Organization classified as a benign odontogenic tumour. It is generally accepted that they arise from the remnants of the dental lamina and are benign but locally aggressive and tend to reoccur.  They [read the full story…]

Dental care provision by auxilary dental providers

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The aim of this review was to evaluate the existing evidence in relation to the safety, quality, productivity or cost-benefit, and patient satisfaction of the procedures performed by the different groups of dental providers. The authors searched the Cochrane, Medline, Embase, and PubMed databases.  They included  4 papers that addressed safety , 9 for quality  [read the full story…]

Text messaging may improve oral health knowledge, attitudes and practices

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The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of delivery oral health messages by text messages and pamphlets to mothers of pre-school children. The study was conducted in India and restricted to mothers with mobile phones who could speak English. Mothers were randomised to received 3 text messages per day ( text message [read the full story…]

Insufficient knowledge about the diagnostic accuracy of the different radiographic techniques for imaging the periapical bone

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This review was undertaken to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of available radiographic methods in use for imaging the periapical bone tissue area.  The review forms part of  wider systematic review covering methods of diagnosis and treatment in endodontics published by the Swedish Council on Health Technology Assessment (SBU). An English version of this is available [read the full story…]

Using a mouthwash may have a beneficial effect on bad breath

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Halitosis is an unpleasant odour that emanates from the oral cavity and can be serious enough to cause personal embarrassment.  The prevalence of halitosis (bad breath or oral malodour) has been reported to be in the order of 50% although this has been questioned. The majority of cases (86%) are considered to be as a [read the full story…]