Exposure of the dental pulp is an occasional hazard associated with dental treatment. Direct pulp capping is a procedure in which a medicament is placed directly over the exposed dental pulp, with the specific aim of maintaining pulp vitality and health. Calcium hydroxide (CaOH) has for many years been considered the material of choice for [read the full story…]
Community treatment orders (CTO’s) provide compulsory supervision outside of psychiatric hospital. They require patients to accept clinical monitoring in the community and enable them to be recalled to hospital for assessment if necessary. They do not authorise forcible treatment; however whilst on a CTO a patient may be ordered to meet certain requirements, such as [read the full story…]
Inferior alveolar nerve block (IANB) is a routine technique for achieving regional anaesthesia. However, it is not always successful, with inflammation being a potential cause. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of preoperative oral ibuprofen (IBU) on the success of inferior alveolar nerve blocks (IANBs) with mepivacaine containing 1: 100 000 epinephrine for [read the full story…]
The effects of dental local anaesthetic often prolonged, particularly soft tissue numbness. This may affect appearance, the ability to speak, smile or eat following dental treatment. Phentolamine mersylate has been shown to accelerate the return of soft tissue feeling after routine dental procedures and was licensed by The Food and Drugs Administration for dental use [read the full story…]
Dementia is one of the most common and serious disorders in later life. It places a considerable burden on the health care system, individuals and especially unpaid carers. Depression is common among people with dementia and causes additional distress to affected individuals and their social circle. Research into the treatment of depression in dementia is [read the full story…]
The National Elf Service and Minervation (the organisation behind the elves) have been supporters of the AllTrials campaign since it began. We believe that all clinical trials should be published so that we can avoid repeating trials unnecessarily and make treatment decisions as good as they can be. It’s estimated that around half of the [read the full story…]
As bacteraemia occurs during toothbrushing (Dental Elf 5th Oct 2011) it is to be anticipated during more invasive activities such as flossing, scaling (Dental Elf 9th Jan 2013) and dental extractions. The main aim of this study was to directly compare and determine the effect of a pre- procedure rinse of 0.12% chlorhexidine on the [read the full story…]
There is a limited amount of good quality research being published about bipolar disorder, particularly investigating the early stages. Bipolar is associated with a high risk of relapse and this risk of relapse increases with the number of previous episodes. Observational studies suggest that early intervention may improve both course and outcome, but currently progression [read the full story…]
Most of us care about our health (something we elves encourage) but for up to 5% of people, worrying about health has become a significant problem in itself. Severe health anxiety, or hypochondriasis, is said to exist when someone holds a strong fear of having a serious disease, despite all medical assurances to the contrary. [read the full story…]
The NICE guideline on common mental disorders (PDF) was published back in May 2011, which means that it only included evidence published up until the end of 2010. This is a fast moving field, so NICE have now put out an evidence update, which focuses on new evidence published from Sept 2010 to Oct 2012. This [read the full story…]
