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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Surgical masks versus N95 respirators

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This review of the effectiveness of N95 respirators versus surgical masks for prevention of influenza included 6 RCTs involving 9171 participants. THe findings suggest that use of N95 respirators compared with surgical masks was not associated with a lower risk of laboratory-confirmed influenza.

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Smoking and dental implant failure

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This review of whether there was an increased risk of dental implant failure in heavy smokers compared with light smokers included 23 studies the majority being retrospective studies. The findings suggest that the risk of implant failure was elevated with an increase in the number of cigarettes smoked per day but the findings should be interpreted cautiously.

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Non-carious cervical lesions: How common are they in adults?

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This review of the worldwide prevalence of non-carious cervical lesions (NCCLs) in adults included 26 cross-sectional studies providing a weighted prevalence estimate estimate of 46.7 %(95%CI; 38.2 to 55.3 %).

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Non-surgical periodontal treatment and quality of life

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This review of the impact of of non-surgical periodontal treatment (NSPT) on oral health-related quality of life included 12 studies. The findings suggest that NSPT improves oral health-related quality of life in the short-term.

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Third molars: Factors associated with surgical difficulty

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This review of variables associated with surgical difficulty in the extraction of third molars included 16 prospective cohort studies suggesting a number of variable that may be associated with surgical difficulty.

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Bone regeneration: Is cortical perforation a benefit?

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This review of the effect of cortical perforations in bone regeneration considering the surgical technique included 16 small studies. All but one of teh studies was conducted in an animal model providing very little clinically relevant data.

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Potassium iodide: Does it reduce silver diamine fluoride induced tooth staining?

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This review of the effectiveness of potassium iodide (KI) in reducing staining after silver diamine fluoride use identified just 6 studies 5 of which were conducted in-vitro providing little clinically relevant evidence for the use of KI.

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Overdentures: Single implant retention

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This review of the the survival and complication rates of single implant retained mandibular overdentures included 17 studies (9 RCTs). While the findings suggest they are effective the available studies are small with only 3 providing follow-up of longer than two years.

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Primary teeth: Efficacy of 3 caries removal strategies

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This review of the efficacy of 3 caries removal strategies (complete, selective and stepwise) in primary teeth included 8 RCTs suggesting a lower risk of pulp exposure with selective and stepwise approaches.

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Oral Lichen Planus: Is treatment with corticosteroids safe and effective?

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This Cochrane review of the efficacy and safety of corticosteroids for the treatment of people with oral lichen planus(OLP) included 35 RCTs suggesting that they may be more effective than placebo for reducing the pain of symptomatic OLP but the reliability of the finding is low.

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