Derek Richards

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Derek Richards is a specialist in dental public health, Director of the Centre for Evidence-Based Dentistry and Specialist Advisor to the Scottish Dental Clinical Effectiveness Programme (SDCEP) Development Team. A former editor of the Evidence-Based Dentistry Journal and chief blogger for the Dental Elf website until December 2023. Derek has been involved with a wide range of evidence-based initiatives both nationally and internationally since 1994. Derek retired from the NHS in 2019 remaining as a part-time senior lecturer at Dundee Dental School until the end of 2023.

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Listening to music to reduce the pain and anxiety of third molar surgery

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This review assess of listening to music to reduce preoperative anxiety and pain during third molar extractions included 5 RCTs. The findings suggest reducction in preoperative anxiety but the quality and number of studies is limited.

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Single or multiple visit root canal therapy?

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This Cochrane review update comparing single and multiple vist root canal treatments in patients over the age of 10 included 47 RCTs. There was no evidence to suggest that one treatment regimen (single‐visit or multiple‐visit RoCT) is more effective than the other although more patients report pain in the first week with the single visit approach.

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Top Dental Elf blogs Oct – Dec 2022

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Our most read blogd in October, November and December 2022 covered treatments for burning mouth syndrome, recurrent oral aphthous stomatitis and preformed metal crowns on primary molars

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Top Dental Elf blogs Jul – Sep 2022

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Sonic verses rotating oscillating powered toothbrushes, the use of the miswak for periodontal health and the effect of silver diamine fluoride on the pulp were the topics of our most read blogs in July , August and September 2022.

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Top Dental Elf blogs Apr – Jun 2022

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Traumatic dental injuries, hypomineraised primary molars and links between iron-deficiency and early childhood caries were the topics of our most read blogs in April , May and June of 2022.

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Odontogenic keratocsyst – surgical treatments

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This review of different surgical treatments for odontogenic keratocsysts (OKC) with respect to recurrence rates includes 40 observational studies. The finding suggest that enucleation plus peripheral ostectomy/curettage and 5-Fluorouracil had the lowest recurrence rate and enucleation alone the highest but the evidence is mainly of very low certainty.

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Alveolar osteitis and oral contraceptive use

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Anti-epileptic drugs can influence the effectiveness of contraceptive drugs

This review assessing the risk of alveolar osteitis (AO) in in oral contraceptive users included 17 mainly observational studies. The findings showed an increased risk of developing AO in female oral contraceptive (OCP) users, RR = 1.98 (95%CI:1.42 to 2.76) compared to female non-OCP users

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Oral submucous fibrosis – malignant transformation rate

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In this blog we look at a review of the malignant transformation rate (MTR) for oral submucous fibrosis (OSF). The review included 16 studies estimating the malignant transformation rate as 6% (95%CI: 2% to 10%)

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Preformed metal crown on primary molars – Conventional or Hall techniques?

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This review of the outcomes of preformed metal crowns placed on primary molars using conventional and Hall techniques included 5 studies. The findings suggest similar overal sucess and survival rates for both techniques.

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