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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Face masks: Extended use and re-use

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This rapid evidence review was conducted in line with Cochrane interim guidance for rapid reviews and a summary was published as part of the Oxford Covid-19 Evidence Review Service on the 5th June.

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Dentine hypersensitivity: lasers v topical desensitising agents

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This review comparing the effectiveness of lasers and topical desensitising agent treatments for dentine hypersensitivity included 13 studies. None of the studies was at low risk of bias so the evidence is of low-quality and insufficient to draw any conclusions on the superiority of lasers or conventional topical desensitising agents.

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Triphala mouthwash for plaque-induced gingivitis

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This review of the efficacy of Triphala and chlorhexidine mouthwash in the treatment of plaque-induced gingivitis included 7 RCTs involving a total of 1270 patients. However most of the studies are of short duration at at high to medium risk of bias.

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Third molars: Remove or retain asymptomatic disease-free impacted teeth?

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This Cochrane review of the effects of removal compared with retention (conservative management) of asymptomatic disease-free impacted wisdom teeth updates the 2016 version. No new studies were identified so the conclusions are unchanged.

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COVID-19 Dental Elf blogs

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On this page we have compiled all our dental blogs related to the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS- CoV-2) or COVID-19 outbreak.

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Oral lichen planus: How common is it worldwide?

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This review of the global prevalence of oral lichen planus (OLP) included 66 observational studies providing an estimate of prevalence of 1.01% (0.74 to 1.32%).

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Oral submucous fibrosis: Is treatment with hyaluronidase and corticosteroids effective?

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This review of the efficacy of hyaluronidase combined with corticosteroids in the management of oral submucous fibrosis (OSF)included 6 small RCTs of short duration. Only one of the RCTs was considered to be at low risk of bias so additional well conducted and reported studies with larger sample are needed to evaluate treatments for OSF.

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Botulinum toxin for management of temporomandibular disorders

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This review of botulinum toxin (BTX) in the management of temporomandibular joint disorders (TMD) included 7 small RCTs of low quality. high quality well reported RCTs with larger sample sizes and longer follow times are needed to properly assess the effectiveness of BTX in the management of TMD.

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Direct pulp capping in primary teeth

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This review of direct pulp capping in vital primary teeth included 12 RCTs testing 16 different pulp capping agents. Interpretation of the available data is limited as few trials comparign the same agents and the quality of the trials is low.

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