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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Prevalence of burning mouth syndrome

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This review evaluating the worldwide prevalence and epidemiology profile of burning mouth syndrome included 18 studies. Population based studies suggest an overall prevalence of 1.73% and clinically-based studies a 7.72% prevalence.

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Endodontic surgery: Adjunctive regenerative techniques

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This review of the influence of different regenerative techniques and materials on the outcome of endodontic surgery includes 11 RCTs. The findings suggest that regenerative approaches improve periapical lesion healing after endodontic surgery. However the studies are small and only 2 are at low risk of bias.

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Probiotics and gingival inflammation

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This review of the effect of probiotics on gingival inflammation and oral microbiota in patients suffering from plaque-induced gingivitis included 11 RCTs. No clear evidence was found to indicate that oral probiotics have a positive effect on gingival inflammation and oral microecological environment of patients with gingivitis.

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Oral leukoplakia and rate of malignant transformation

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This update of an earlier review of the malignant transformation rate of oral leukoplakia included 24 retrospective studies. The pooled proportion of malignant transformation was 9.8% (95%CI; 7.9 to 11.7%)

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Clarithromycin as an adjunct to non-surgical periodontal treatment

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This review of systemic or locally delivered clarithromycin as an adjunct to non-surgical periodontal therapy included 7 small RCTs, 4 RCTS related to systemic use and 3RCTS for local application. The findings provide moderate certainty evidence suggesting locally delivered clarithromycin significantly improves treatment outcome

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Ten Years of the Dental Elf

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It is now 10 years since the very first Dental Elf Blog. Since then we have published 1626 blogs covering a wide range of topics so we present a brief overview of the categories covered.

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Plaque disclosing methods: Do they lead to improvements in oral health?

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This review of whether plaque-disclosing (PD) methods, applied by dental professionals or at-home with verbal oral hygiene instruction (OHI)improved plaque control compared with OHI alone included 7 RCTs involving 430 patients.

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Caries detection using visual or visual-tactile examination

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This diagnostic test accuracy review of visual classification systems for the detection and diagnosis of non-cavitated coronal dental caries in children or adults included 67 studies. The findings suggest that these classificationssystems have resonable performance but the certainty of the evidence is low.

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Rubber bristles interdental cleaners as an adjunct to toothbrushing

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This review of the efficacy of rubber bristles interdental cleaners (RBIC) as an adjunct to toothbrushing (TB) included 6 RCTs. The findings provide weak to very weak certainty evidence for the use of RBICs for gingivitis and plaque reduction.

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Early childhood caries: Global prevalence

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The 2019 Bangkok Declaration defined early childhood caries (ECC) as the presence of a primary tooth with one or more carious (non-cavitated or cavitated lesions), missing (due to caries), or filled surfaces in a child under the age of six years. While dental caries is a preventable chronic health problem it remains a significant public [read the full story…]