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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Intrabony periodontal defects – does combining bone substitutes and enamel matrix derivatives improve outcomes?

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This review of combining bone substitutes and enamel matrix derivatives for the management of intrabony periodontal defects only identified 5 small RCTs of limited quality. The addition of EMD to bony substitutes was not seen to be beneficial but the results should be interpreted cautiously due to limitations in the available evidence.

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Powered toothbrushes for orthodontic patients

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This review of powered toothbrushes for periodontal health in orthodontic patients included 9 small RCTs. A small statistically significant benefit was noted in short term use.

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Coronectomy – a safe option for deeply impacted mandibular third molars?

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This review of coronectomy for management of impacted mandibular third molars included 14 studies suggesting that it is safe and reliable with a low failure rate (7%).

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Statins as an adjunct to scaling and root planing

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11 RCTs were included in this review of statins as an adjunct to scaling and root planing. The findings suggest improvements in pocket depth and clinical attachment levels with statin use.

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Orthodontic treatment- can a vibrational stimulus shorten treatment times?

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8 studies were included in this review of vibrational stimulus to accelerate orthodontic treatment. The studies were small and of short duration providing very low quality evidence to support any effect. Further high quality studies of longer duration are needed.

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Pain during orthodontic treatment –pharmacological treatments

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This Cochrane review of drug interventions for pain during orthodontic treatment including 32 RCTs find that analgesics were effective in reducing pain. However, low quality evidence did not show a difference in effectiveness between systemic NSAIDs compared with paracetamol, or topical NSAIDs compared with local anaesthetic.

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Mucositis in adult cancer patients reduced with keratinocyte growth factor

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This Cochrane review of cytokines and growth factors for preventing oral mucositis in patients having cancer treatment included 35 RCTs finding keratinocyte growth factor beneficial in the prevention of oral mucositis .

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Hepatitis C and oral lichen planus

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This review of the association between hepatitis C virus (HCV) and oral lichen planus (OLP) identified 19 case-controlled studies. While a 6-fold increase in risk of HCV infection was noted in OLP patients a majority of the studies took place in areas with high endemic HCV rates and there is some concern regarding publication bias and the quality of the available studies.

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Orthodontic bracket slot size: does it influence treatment outcomes?

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Only 4 mainly retrospective studies were identified for this review of the influence of orthodontic bracket size on treatment outcomes. While greater efficiency was suggested with the 0.018-inch bracket the quality of the evidence is limited a higher quality studies are needed.

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