Mark-Steven Howe

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Mark qualified from Birmingham University in 1988. After 4 years in general practice he joined the Royal Air Force Dental Branch on a Short Service Commission serving in the UK and overseas gaining his Diploma and Membership exams in general dental surgery. On leaving the RAF Mark completed his Fellowship to the Faculty of General Dental Practice (FFGDP) and has recently completed an MSc in Evidence-Based Healthcare at the University of Oxford.  Mark has been a full time general dental practitioner at Broadway Dental Care, Worcestershire since 1998. He is a Fellowship assessor for the Faculty of General Dental Practitioners UK, and examiner at the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh.

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The efficacy of periodontal regenerative therapies, more challenges with network meta-analysis

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Mark-Steven Howe takes a detailed look at this review update and network meta-analyses of periodontal regenerative therapies. He highlights the inclusion of non-resorbable membrane studies that are no longer used.

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Dental students, Depression and Covid-19

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Medical students are less likely to seek professional support despite higher levels of mental illness. 

In this blog Mark-Steven Howe takes a look at two recent systematic reviews relating to depression in dental students. One review looked at levels of depression before the covid pandemic and one investigates depression during the pandemic.

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Maxillary sinus augmentation – relative performance of available biomaterials and the challenge of small studies

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Mark Steven Howe takes a detailed look at this Bayesian network meta-analysis (NMA) assessing the relative performance of diffferent biomaterials used for maxillary sinus augmentation. 34 RCTs with 28 different treatment options providing a large number of potential pairwise comparisons although only a small number used direct data. The findings suggest little difference beween the various biomaterials but the available studies are small with only 5 being at low risk of bias.

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Endodontic diagnosis – conventional radiography versus cone beam computed tomography

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Mark-Steven Howe looks at this is diagnostic test accuracy review comparing conventional and cone-beam computed tomography for detecting persistent apical disease after root canal treatment.

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Removable partial dentures: is dental implant support a predictable approach?

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Following tooth loss, it may not be possible to restore the dentition with a fixed prosthesis due to issues with the size and distribution of the saddle area/s, abutment distribution and bone quantity/quality. This problem can be partly resolved using a removable partial denture (RPD), but good retention and stability may be challenging to achieve [read the full story…]

Powered Air-Purifying Respirator (PAPR) use for prevention of highly infectious viral disease in healthcare workers

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Mark-Steven Howe takes a look at a preprint of a systematic review that evaluates the effect of Powered Air Purifying Respirators (PAPRs)for respiratory protection compared with N95/FFP2 masks on HCW infection rates and contamination.

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Aerosol generating procedures (AGPs) and their mitigation in international guidelines: Fallow time

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Mark-Steven Howe takes a look at the fallow times reported in the recently published rapid review of international guidelines, the precautionary principle and the Independent Action Hypothesis (IAH).

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Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 screening: Could it accidentally cause local lockdowns?

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Mark-Steven Howe takes a look coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 screening and the implications of false positive tests in this blog

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Blinding in randomised controlled trials of oral health interventions and effect size estimates

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Clearer guidance needed on cardiology follow up, primary care treatment of skins conditions and surveillance for disability hate crime

In this blog Mark-Steven Howe looks at a methodlogical review and meta-analysis. The review looked at the use of patient and assessor blinding is trials of oral health interventions and shows larger effect sizes when blinding was lacking.

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FFP3 fit testing accuracy and Covid-19 prevalence update

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In another of his series of blogs on Covid-19 Mark-Steven Howe looks at the latest data on prevalence from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) and data on the fit testing of FFP3 masks.

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