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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Does orthognathic surgery have an effect on the oropharyngeal airway

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Skeletal movements and changes in the position of the hyoid bone as a result of orthognathic surgery may have on the oropharyngeal airway.  The aim of this article was to report the results from a meta-analysis of the scientific literature concerned with changes in the airway in human clinical trials in adult subjects submitted to [read the full story…]

Insufficient evidence for or against use of cognitive-behavioural therapy for the treatment of temporomandibular disorders

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The aim of this review was to assess the contribution of cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT)  to the management of temporomandibular disorders (TMD). The authors searched  the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trial (CENTRAL), Pubmed and the Chinese Biomedical Literature Data for randomised and semi-randomised controlled trials (RCTs), comparing CBT with any control group receiving other dental [read the full story…]

Asthma doubles the risk of caries in both primary and permanent dentition

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Asthma and caries are two of the commonest health problems affecting children.  This review and meta-analysis was conducted to synthesize the evidence on the relation between asthma and caries. The authors searched Medline, Government reports and conference proceedings for case-control, cohort, or cross sectional studies   that provided relevant and applicable quantitative information on the relation [read the full story…]

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Hypnosis reduces temporomandibular disorder pain

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The aim of this trial was to assess the effect of hypnosis on self-reported pain and the blink reflex (BR) in temporomandibular disorder. Forty three patients with a diagnosis of persistent (>6 months) myofascial pain Iab  according to the Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDC/TMD) were  randomized to hypnosis or control (nonhypnotic relaxation). Pain intensity was assessed [read the full story…]

5 to 7% of patients have persistent pain after root canal treatment

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This  systematic review was first published in 2010 The American Dental Association Centre for Evidence-based Dentistry has now published a critical summary of this review. They found the review to be comprehensive using STROBE criteria to assess study quality.Eighteen of the 26 studies were prospective. However they noted that the reviewers did not report the [read the full story…]

NSAIDs and the risk of head and neck cancer

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Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) use  has been associated with a reduced risk of a number of  cancers. The mechanism is thought to be via the inhibitory action on the cyclooxygenase (COX) enzyme, COX-2.  The aim of this review was to investigate the association between NSAID/aspirin use and risk of head and neck cancer (HNC). The [read the full story…]

A causal association between smoking and tooth loss is likely

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The aim of this review was to evaluate the causal association between smoking and tooth loss. The reviewers searched Medline, Embase, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) and hand searched a number of relevant journals. English language studies investigating associations between smoking and tooth loss and reporting the effect size were included. Quality [read the full story…]

Low educational attainment associated with an increased risk of periodontitis

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The aim of this review was to determine the extent to which educational attainment influences risk of periodontitis in adults aged 35+ years in the general population. The authors searched the Embase and Medline databases, reference lists of identified articles,  personal databases and contacted experts in the field.  general population-based studies conducted in adults aged [read the full story…]

Vacuum-formed and Hawley retainers equally effective at preventing orthodontic relapse at one year

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Long term studies have shown that relapse occurs  in around 70%  of  orthodontic treatment.  However it is difficult to predict either those cases that will relapse or the degree to which it will occur. The aim of the this study was to compare the effectiveness of vacuum-formed and Hawley retainers in maintaining arch width as [read the full story…]

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Rapid maxillary expansion and headgear, or headgear alone increases eruption success rate of palatally displaced canines

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The prevalence of palatally displaced permanent canine teeth varies between 0.8 and 5.2 % . The aim of this trial was to test the effectiveness of cervical pull headgear  and  rapid maxillary expansion and cervical pull headgear on the eruption of palatally displaced canines. They  randomized 64 patients with to one of three groups: cervical [read the full story…]