Oral piercings and periodontal health

oral piercing

This review of the influence of oral piercings on the periodontal health status in adult patients included 8 small observational studies. In line with other reviews the findings indicate adverse effects on periodontal health from oral piercings. However the quality of the evidence is low.

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Oral leukoplakia – global prevalence

Leukoplakia

This review of the prevalence of oral leukoplakia reported from 1996 to 2022,by continent, definition, age, and living habits included 69 studies. The findings provided a global pooled estimate for prevalence of 3.41% (95%CI: 2.65 to 4.26%).

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Caries experience in patients with diabetes mellitus

occlusal caries, molar teeth

This review of caries experience in adult patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) compared diabetics to individuals without DM included 13 mainly cross-sectional studies. The findings suggest higher DMF scores in patietns with DM.

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Third molar surgery and antibiotic use

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This review of antibiotic prophylactic treatments in relation to the risk of developing dry socket (DS) and site-specific infection (SSI) after lower third molar extraction included 16 RCTs. Antibiotic did reduce the risk of DS and SSI in health patients but the number needed to treat (NNT) was high so the use should be considered only after a careful assessment of an individual patient’s risk.

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Oral cavity and oropharyngeal cancers – surgical treatments

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This update of a Cochrane review of the relative benefits and harms of different surgical treatment modalities for oral cavity and oropharyngeal cancers includes 15 RCTs. Moderate-certainty evidence from 5 RCTs showed trials that elective neck dissection of clinically negative neck nodes at the time of removal of the primary oral cavity tumour is superior to therapeutic neck dissection, with increased survival and disease-free survival, and reduced locoregional recurrence.

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Bruxism in Down Syndrome patients

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This review to assess the prevalence in bruxism in patients with Down Syndrome included 8 small studies. The studies were hetrogeneous with a pooled prevalence of 33% (95% CI: 22 to 45%).

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Dental caries and genetics – is there a link?

Twins

This review assessing the agreement of dental caries experience between monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic twins (DZ) included 19 studies. While the findings indcate a possible a genetic influence the certainty of evidence is very low so the findings should be interpreted very cautiously.

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Orofacial injuries in people with cerebral palsy

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This review of the prevalence of orofacial injuries in patients with cerebral palsy (CP) included 12 studies. Ten studies were included in a meta-analysis which estimates the assess the prevalence of orofacial injuries in patients with CP at 34% (95%CI; 18 – 25%).

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Narrow v regular diameter dental implants for mandibular overdentures

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This review comparing the use of narrow-diameter and regular diameter dental implants for supporting mandibular overdentures included 8 studies reported in 12 publications. While the findings suggest no differences between narrow and regular implants supporting mandibular overdentures the findings should be viewed cautiously as the quality of evidence is limited in quality and quantity and also short-term in nature.

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Sialendoscopy – success rates

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This review of the efficacy and safety of sialendoscopy in the treatment of obstructive diseases of the major salivary glands included 91 studies. The findings indicate and overall success rate of 80.9% (76.6 to 84.6 %) although all the included studies are observational, mainly retrospective and at medium to high risk of bias.

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