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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Preoperative NSAIDs improve local anaesthetic success for root canal treatment of mandibular teeth

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Inferior alveolar nerve block (IANB) is the most frequently used injection technique for achieving local anaesthesia for root canal treatment of mandibular teeth. However it is not always successful in endodontics with studies failure rates occurring between 44% and 81% of the time.  The aim of this randomised trial was to determine the effect of [read the full story…]

More dental anomalies in the permanent teeth of individuals born with oral clefts

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This aim of this review was to identify if patients individuals born with non-syndromic oral clefts had a higher frequency of dental anomalies. Searches were conducted in Medline, BIREME, OVID all EBM Reviews, and the Cochrane Library. Papers reporting observational controlled studies of non-syndromic forms of oral clefts matched for dental anomalies in primary and/or [read the full story…]

Guidelines for the care and maintenance of complete dentures

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Internationally the rates of edentulousness are estimated to be between 7% and 69%. In 2009 the American College of Prosthodontists (ACP) formed a task force to establish evidence-based guidelines for the care and maintenance of complete dentures. This  comprised members of the ACP, the Academy of General Dentistry, American Dental Association (ADA) Council on Scientific [read the full story…]

Functional orthodontic appliance treatment provides small beneficial changes in skeletal patterns

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The aim of this review was assess the effectiveness of functional appliances on mandibular growth in the short term. Functional appliances consist of a range of removable and fixed devices that are designed to alter the position of the mandible, both sagittally and vertically, with the aim of inducing supplementary lengthening of the mandible by [read the full story…]

Preventive and non-invasive treatment for dental caries appears to be cost-effective

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The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of a non-invasive approach to dental caries management in private dental practice. The Caries Management System is a 10-step non-invasive strategy to arrest and remineralize early lesions. The main principle is that caries management must include consideration of the patient at risk, the [read the full story…]

Shorter dental implants have higher failure rates

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This review looked at whether there is any difference in failure rates between short implants (minimum length 7mm) and longer implants (≥10 mm).  A recent review by  Telleman et al also reviewed the prognosis of short <10mm implants. For this particular review the authors searched Medline, Embase, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) [read the full story…]

In deep cavities stepwise excavation of caries can preserve pulp

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Clinicians regularly encounter deep carious cavities which can lead to pulp exposure if the caries is completely removed.  This may lead to pulpectomy and root canal treatment.  However the pulp possess a regenerative ability so stepwise approaches to caries removal have been investigated.  The aim of this review was to investigate the best possible methods [read the full story…]

Evidence from systematic reviews and meta-analyses for the management of TMD (temporomandibular disorders)

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This aim of this review was to assess the methodological quality of published systematic reviews in the management of temporomandibular disorders (TMD). Medline, the Cochrane Library and Bandolier were searched for systematic reviews that focused on TMD management published in English, Swedish, or German. Two investigators evaluated the methodological quality of each identified systematic review using [read the full story…]

Can weight loss effect the fit or stability of dentures?

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The Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health (CADTH) has looked at the evidence available to address the question: What is the evidence that weight loss can affect the fit or stability of dentures? They searched PubMed, the Cochrane Library, University of York Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (CRD) databases, ECRI, EuroScan and the [read the full story…]

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Extractions due to dental infections associated with nonfatal MI in elderly men

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This study was a nested case-control study within the Oslo Study, (a cohort study of the prevention and epidemiology of cardiovascular diseases). The aim was to explore whether dental extractions are associated with myocardial infarction (MI). The sample consisted of  men with a self-reported history of MI as cases (n = 548) and controls (n [read the full story…]