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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Limited evidence for acupuncture as a symptomatic treatment of TMD

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Acupuncture

This systematic review looked at whether acupuncture is effective for the treatment of temporomandibular disorders (TMD). Searches were conducted in 13 databases, Medline, PubMed, The Cochrane Library, CINAHL, EMBASE, seven Korean Medical Databases and a Chinese Medical Database.  The authors looked for parallel or cross-over randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of acupuncture for TMD regardless of [read the full story…]

CT and MRI in temporomandibular joint diagnosis

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This systematic review looked at the evidence for the diagnostic thinking efficacy and therapeutic efficacy of computed tomography (CT) and (magnetic resonance imaging) MRI in temporomandibular joint disorders (TMJD).  Medline, the Cochrane Library databases and reference list of review articles were searched. Publications considered relevant were interpreted with the aid of the Quality Assessment of [read the full story…]

Second-hand smoke and dental caries associated

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This review evaluates the relationship between second-hand smoke (SHS) and dental caries in epidemiological studies. Only Medline and reference lists of identified articles were searched. The review included 14 studies, one cohort and 14 case-controls. Quality was assessed using the modified Newcastle–Ottawa Scale. They found, 11 studies examined early childhood caries, with a significant independent [read the full story…]

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Using lasers to treat dentine hypersensitivity suggests slight benefit

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This systematic review looks at whether laser therapy is more effective than desensitising agents for treating dentine hypersensitivity (DH).   DH is a common problem characterised by a short sharp pain which cannot be ascribed to any or dental problem.  It has increased in prevalence over the last few decades with prevalence being reported as high [read the full story…]

Banding versus bonding for attaching orthodontic appliances

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This clinical trial was one of the two included in the recently published Cochrane Review and has itself just been published. It was a multi-centred trial that took place at One District General Hospital Orthodontic Department and two Specialist Orthodontic Practices. Orthodontic patients aged between 10 and 18 years old, were randomly allocated to either receive [read the full story…]

Alveolar bone grafts for children with cleft lip and palate

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About 75% of cleft lip and palate patients have a bony defect in the gum of the mouth (alveolar cleft). If not repaired it gives rise to many problems. While bone grafting is widely accepted by professionals in cleft care, there is still controversy around the technique, timing, site from which bone is taken and [read the full story…]

Bond or Band: to fix braces to back teeth

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This new Cochrane review compares methods of fixing tubes on back (molar) teeth to allow the wires need to move the teeth pass through them.  These can be welded to bands cemented to teeth or glued (bonded) directly to the teeth.  They only found two well designed trials which suggest that bonded molar tubes are [read the full story…]