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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Lingual fixed orthodontic appliances: insufficient evidence of effectiveness

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11 studies were identified for this review of lingual fixed orthodontic appliances. while some benefits were suggested the quality of the available studies was very low providing insufficient evidence of the effectiveness of lingual appliances.

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Dental Erosion – incidence and progression high in adolescents

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This cohort study followed 13-14 year old Swedish adolescents over 4 years finding high incidence and prevalence of erosion, with higher levels being seen in males.

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Probiotics – insufficient evidence supporting use to manage caries or periodontal disease

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This review of probiotics use for caries and periodontal disease management identified 50 studies. Most focused on surrogate outcomes (bacterial counts) and the overall quality of the evidence supporting probiotic therapy was graded as very low for all outcomes.

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Psychosocial correlates of oral hygiene behaviour in children and adolescents

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This review included 31 data sets from 24 papers and indicates that ‘self-efficacy’, ‘intention’, ‘social influences’, ‘coping planning’ and ‘action planning’ are potential psychosocial determinants of oral health behaviour.

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Narrow dental implants – good survival at 2 years suggests review

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This review of narrow titanium–zirconium alloy (Ti–Zr) implants included 9 studies ( 2 RCTs) which suggest good survival rates (>95%) after 2 years.

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Post-orthodontic white spot lesions – lack of reliable evidence for management strategies

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Only 8 studies at high risk of bias were available for this review of treatments for post orthodontic white spot lesions (WSLs) . They provide little reliable evidence to support remineralising or camouflaging strategies to manage WSLs.

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Smoking cessation interventions for head and neck cancer patients

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This review of smoking cessation for patients with head and neck cancer included 8 studies ( 3 RCTs) and suggests that those receiving counseling had a 26% higher quit rate than with controls

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Low-level laser as an adjunct to non-surgical periodontal treatment-evidence limited

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This review of low-level laser therapy as an adjunct to non-surgical periodontal treatment only identified 7 small high risk studies. While results suggest short term improvements there should be viewed with caution.

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Resin-bonded fixed dental prostheses

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5 studies at high risk of bias were included in this review of the impact of framework design on the clinical performance of resin bonded fixed dental prosthesis. While lower failures were seen with cantilever designs the results should be interpreted cautiously.

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Periapical surgery – improved outcomes with regenerative techniques?

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Eight small studies were identified for this review of the use of regenerative techniques as an adjunct to periapical surgery. The findings suggest that they improve outcomes after 1 year, but they should be interpreted with caution.

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