child and adolescent

Birth – 18 years.

Our child and adolescent Blogs

Health Promoting Schools can improve some areas of health, but more research is needed

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My grandfather had a nearly religious conviction of the value of physical activity. No weekend was complete without a strenuous bout of outdoor exercise, regardless of the weather.  New England gets cold and damp, and his five children would prepare themselves for winter excursions with some reluctance. ‘Healthy body, healthy mind!’ my grandfather would say, exhorting them [read the full story…]

Study suggests benefits to adjacent teeth from application of fluoride containing fissure sealants

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There is good quality review evidence (Ahovuo-Saloranta et al.  2013) that resin-based fissure sealants are effective at preventing or controlling occlusal caries. The aim of this trial was to assess whether sealing first permanent molars with fluoride releasing compounds reduced the caries increment on the distal surface of the second primary molars. Children with at [read the full story…]

Second group of reviewers find some evidence for use of facemask for class III malocclusions

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The aim of this review was to evaluate the short-term skeletal effects of facemask treatment on growing Class III patients. Searches were conducted in PubMed, Medline, Embase, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Web of Science, LILACS, and Google Scholar. Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) conducted on growing class III patients using protraction facemask were included. [read the full story…]

Bullying and cyberbullying increase the risk of suicidal ideation and suicide attempts in adolescents

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Emma Cernis
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Bullying is just not good for you.  Here on Mental Elf, we’ve already picked some great examples of studies demonstrating this.  André blogged about how bullied children are more likely to develop psychosis, and how bullies are at higher risk for teen pregnancy, and not so long ago, I told you how Wolke et al demonstrated that [read the full story…]

Review finds insufficient evidence to determine whether Hawley or vacuum-formed retainers are most effective following orthodontic treatment

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Retention is an essential phase of orthodontic treatment without which there is a tendency for teeth to return to their initial position. The aim of this review was to compare the effects of Hawley retainers (HRs) and vacuum-formed retainers (VFRs) Searches were conducted in Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), Medline, Embase, ISI Web [read the full story…]

No good quality evidence on how to manage juvenile idiopathic arthritis with temporomandibular joint involvement

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Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), also known as juvenile chronic arthritis and juvenile rheumatoid arthritis affects a range of joints. The temporomandibular joint (TMJ) can be the first and only affected joint. In the UK about 1 and 2 in every 10,000 children develop JIA each year. The prevalence of TMJ involvement in JIA patients ranges [read the full story…]

Study suggests that fissure sealants can arrest caries in primary molars

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There is good evidence for the effectiveness of fissure sealants in the prevention of caries (Dental Elf 8th April 2013) and some evidence for its use in the treatment of carious lesions. There is also evidence for the effectiveness of partial rather complete caries removal (Dental Elf 13th Apr – 2014).The aim of this study [read the full story…]

Childhood nightmares, night terrors, sleepwalking and psychotic experiences

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Joe Judge
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I was a terrible sleeper as a child. I remember lying awake on one particular occasion because I had read a book about space and thought that the sun might swallow up the earth. I was intrigued then, when I was asked to review a paper for the Mental Elf about parasomnias and childhood psychotic [read the full story…]

Review finds that orthodontic treatment using self-ligated bracket systems take longer than conventional approaches

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This review aims to assess the role of the various characteristics of orthodontic brackets (material, slot size, ligation type, etc) and their combination with specific wires on their clinical effectiveness and associated side-effects during fixed-appliance orthodontic treatment. Searches were conducted in Medline, Cochrane Library, Biomed Central, BBO including LILACS, Ind Med, Sceilo, Clinical trials.gov, Conference [read the full story…]

Approximately 1 in 6 children develop PTSD after trauma exposure

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How many children develop Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) after a traumatic experience such as an assault, a car crash, war or disaster? William Yule, one of the godfathers of child traumatic stress research, once pointed out that rates reported in separate studies varied from 0 to 100%. So what is on average the rate [read the full story…]