Top Dental Elf Blogs: Jul – Sep 2021

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Treatments for cavitated dentine caries, topical anaesthetics to reduce injection pain and vital pulp therapy for permanent teeth were out most popular blogs duing July, August and September 2021.

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Topical fluorides for early childhood caries

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This review of the caries preventive effectiveness of topical fluorides in the primary dentition included 24 RCTs with 10 RCTs contributing to a network meta-analysis (NMA). While the NMA did allow a ranking of effectiveness the number of studies involved was small and 17 of the 24 studies were considered to be at high risk of bias.

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Early enamel caries: Detection and diagnosis

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This comparative analysis of 5 Cochrane caries diagnostic test accuracy studies provides summary estimates for most currently available technologies. However the certainty of the evidence is considered low and it is difficult to predict real world performance.

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Caries prevalence and experience in older adults

The authors managed to develop and implement a strategy to reach older adults in rural areas, despite various barriers to access mental health treatment for this population.

This review of the caries prevalence and experience of older adults globally included 39 studies published between 2016 and 2020. The prevalence of caries in older adults was still high in most countries around the globe with a median of mean prevalence for caries of 49%.

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White spot lesions and masking with resin infiltration

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This review of the long-term efficacy of resin infiltration therapy for white sport lesions with regard to aesthetic appearance and long-term stability included 11 studies 9 of which were RCTs. The findings suggest a benefit but the amount of evidence is limited.

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Proximal caries diagnostic measures

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This review of diagnostic accuracy and reliability of commonly used caries detection methods for proximal caries included 36 studies the majority (31) being conducted in-vitro. A limited number of studies were available to assess most of the diagnostic tests and how the findings from in-vitro studies translates to the the clinical situation needs to be considered cautiously.

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Occlusal caries diagnostic measures

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This review of the diagnostic performance of commonly used methods for occlusal caries diagnoses included 37 studies the majority (29) being conducted in-vitro. While summary diagnostic performance datafor a muber of diagnistic methods is provided it should be treated cautiously as th data is limited in many areas.

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Malocclusion and dental caries

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This review of malocclusion and the severity of dental caries among children and adolescents in the permanent dentition included 5 cross-sectional studies suggesting an association. However the quality of the evidence is limited so should be interpreted cautiously.

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Caries risk models – Predictive performance

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Sergio Uribe in his first Dental ELf blog looks at this review of the predictive performance of seven caries risk assessment models. While the findings suggest a resonable performance from the full and reduced Cariogram more high quality studies are needed in particular in relation to communication of risk to patients and its impact.

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Treatments for cavitated or dentine carious lesions

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This Cochrane review of interventions to treat carious lesions conventionally considered to require restorations in primary or permanent teeth with vital pulps included 27 RCTs. Compared with conventional treatment there were lower numbers of failures with the Hall technique and selective excavation (SE) in primary teeth and with SE and stepwise removal in permanent teeth.

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