This Cochrane review update of the effectiveness of school dental screening programmes on overall oral health status and use of dental services included 7 RCTs providing very low-certainty evidence that is insufficient to allow us to draw conclusions about whether there is a role for traditional school dental screening in improving dental attendance.
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There is an ongoing debate about the management of patients with oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma and clinically negative cervical lymph nodes. Some clinicians favour preventive elective neck dissection (END) which although is linked with favourable survival has an adverse effect on quality of life while others adopt a wait and watch policy. The aim [read the full story…]
This review of of the effects of oral supplementation on the prevention and/or treatment of oral mucositis in patients with cancer undergoing chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy included 12 RCTs and suggest that Zinc supplements may be beneficial.
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This review comparing the efficacy of Cox-2 inhibitors with ibuprofen after third molar removal included 12 RCTs suggesting that COX-2 inhibotors and Ibuprofen provide similar pain relief at 6, 8, and 12 h after third molar removal.
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This review of progression rates in the primary and permanent dentition included 43 studies the majority in permanent teeth(32) providing an estimate of caries incidence rate of 0.11 (95%CI; 0.09–0.13) per person- year at risk.
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This review of caries experience and dental care provision in children with and without learning disabilities included 25 cross sectional studies with findings suggesting no overall difference in caries levels between the two groups.
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Mark Steven-Howe takes a look at a systematic review of survival rates of dental implants placed at sites of previous implant failure. Eight retrospective cohorts were included and while good survival rates were reported over 1-5 years the findings need to be interpreted very cautiously as the studies are at high risk of bias.
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A group of UCL Masters students summarise a systematic review and meta-analysis of subjective and objective studies, which explores sleep problems in young people with autism spectrum disorders.
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This review of the prevalence of distal surface caries in second permanent molars associated with retained third molars included 11 mainly retrospective observational studies findins a pooled prevalence of 23% (95% CI; 2% to 44%).
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This review of success rates of coronal pulpotomy in carious teeth with signs and symptoms indicative of irreversible pulpitis included 8 studies only one of which was a RCT. The data suggest this this procedure may be an alternative to root canal treatment.
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