The Dental Elf is taking a short break over the Easter weekend but will be back on wednesday 11th April.
Early childhood caries (ECC) remains an important clinical challenge so a range of preventive approaches have been used. The aims of this study were to investigate the efficacy of home visits (HV) compared with telephone contacts (TC) and no contact (NC) in reducing ECC , Mutans streptococcus (MS) levels and lactobacilli(LB) colonisation in children from [read the full story…]
Tooth extraction is the most common surgical procedure and is associated with changes to the supporting structures. The aim of this review was to assess the magnitude of dimensional change of both the hard and soft tissues of the alveolar ridges after tooth extraction. The Medline and Cochrane Central databases were searched and a selection [read the full story…]
Rubber dam is recommended for isolating the working field during adhesive dentistry procedures. However, dentists often omit rubber dam, particularly in paediatric dentistry, supposing that it would stress the patient. The aim of this study was to evaluate subjective and objective stress parameters in children and adolescents during dental treatment when using rubber dam compared [read the full story…]
The aim of this review was to evaluate the cumulative state of knowledge related to toothbrush contamination, its possible role in disease transmission, and in preparation for a research study related to toothbrush contamination in critically ill adults. The Pub Med, CINAHL, Cochrane Library, National Guidelines Clearinghouse, Web of Science, and Google Scholar databases were [read the full story…]
Conservation of blood is important in all forms of surgery and approximately 30% of patietns undergoing bimaxillary osteotomies require a transfusion. The aim of this trial was to assess the effect of tranexamic acid on blood loss, quality of surgical field and duration of surgery compared to the effect of nitroglycerin induced moderate hypotension alone [read the full story…]
The keratocystic odontogenic tumour (KCOT, odontogenic keratocyst (OKC)) was first described in the literature in 1956 and is classified by the World Health Organization classified as a benign odontogenic tumour. It is generally accepted that they arise from the remnants of the dental lamina and are benign but locally aggressive and tend to reoccur. They [read the full story…]
The aim of this review was to evaluate the existing evidence in relation to the safety, quality, productivity or cost-benefit, and patient satisfaction of the procedures performed by the different groups of dental providers. The authors searched the Cochrane, Medline, Embase, and PubMed databases. They included 4 papers that addressed safety , 9 for quality [read the full story…]
The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of delivery oral health messages by text messages and pamphlets to mothers of pre-school children. The study was conducted in India and restricted to mothers with mobile phones who could speak English. Mothers were randomised to received 3 text messages per day ( text message [read the full story…]
This review was undertaken to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of available radiographic methods in use for imaging the periapical bone tissue area. The review forms part of wider systematic review covering methods of diagnosis and treatment in endodontics published by the Swedish Council on Health Technology Assessment (SBU). An English version of this is available [read the full story…]