Early detection of oral cancer and oral potentially malignant disorders

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This Cochrane review update of the diagnostic test accuracy of conventional oral examination, vital rinsing, light-based detection, mouth self-examination, remote screening, and biomarkers, used singly or in combination, for the early detection of OPMD or OSCC in apparently healthy adults included 18 studies.

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

Sinus Lift

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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Top Dental Elf Blogs: Oct – Dec 2021

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Amoxicillin and metronidazole as an adjunct to full-mouth scaling and root planing, malignant transformation on oral lichen planus and toothbrushing to prevent ventilator-associated pneumonia was out most popular blogs between October to December 2021.

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Top Dental Elf Blogs: Jul – Sep 2021

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Treatments for cavitated dentine caries, topical anaesthetics to reduce injection pain and vital pulp therapy for permanent teeth were out most popular blogs duing July, August and September 2021.

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Top Dental Elf Blogs: Apr – Jun 2021

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Blogs on alveolar ridge preservation techniques, rubber dam and restoration survival and curcumin mouthwashes were the most popular topics between April and June of 2021.

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Top Dental Elf Blogs: Jan – Mar 2021

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Blogs on burning mouth syndrome, pain control following third molar surgery and the possible association between serum zinc levels and recurrent apthous unceration were the most popular blogs during January – March 2021.

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Orthodontic treatment with fixed appliances – How long does it take?

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This review of the the treatment duration required to achieve whole-arch alignment of the mandibular dentition using fixed appliances included 35 RCTs. The pooled duration for whole-arch alignment in the mandible was 263.0 days/8.8 months (95%CI: 6.2 to11.3 months). Mandibular incisor alignment was achieved in 100.7 days/3.4 months (95%CI: 2.8 to 3.9 months).

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Tricalcium phosphates for infra-bony periodontal defects

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This review of the clinical efficacy of tricalcium phosphates (-containing) biomaterials in the treatment of periodontal infra-bony defects includes 16 RCTs. While the findings suggest improvements in pocket depth and clinical attachment level only 6 of the studies contributed to the meta-analyses and the number of events and studies are small so the findings should be viewed cautiously.

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Mobile applications and behaviour change in orthodontic patients

This RCT looked at whether Mentalization Based Treatment for Adolescents reduced self-harming beahviour

This review of the effectiveness of mobile applications and social media-based interventions in inducing behaviour change among orthodontic patients included 16 RCTs. While the findings suggest some limited beneficial changes in orthodontic patients the interventions are very hetrogeneous and not based on clear behavioural change theory.

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Topical fluorides for early childhood caries

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This review of the caries preventive effectiveness of topical fluorides in the primary dentition included 24 RCTs with 10 RCTs contributing to a network meta-analysis (NMA). While the NMA did allow a ranking of effectiveness the number of studies involved was small and 17 of the 24 studies were considered to be at high risk of bias.

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