This review of whether parents’ presence in the room influences children’s behaviour, anxiety and fear during dental treatment included 16 studies. The findings suggest that parents’ presence in the operation room does not influence children’s (up to 12 years old) behaviour, anxiety and fear during dental treatment. However the included studies are all at high risk of bias so the certainty of the evidence is very low.
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Since the emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus just over a year ago we have published a number of dental blogs relevant to COVID-19. The blogs cover topics such as dental teams’ generic risk of disease, baseline risk of covid-19, asymptomatic patients and the risk of community spread, digital thermometers, mouthwash use, surgical mask types, gown [read the full story…]
13 studies involving a total of 3885 patients were included in this review of the prevalence of hyposalivation in individuals aged ≥ 60 years. The findings suggest an overall prevalence of 33.4% (95%CI; 23.9- 43.6%).
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This Cochrane review update of the optimal recall interval of dental check-up for oral health in a primary care setting included 2 RCTs. The findings show little to no difference between six‐monthly and risk‐based check‐ups in tooth decay, gum disease and quality of life after four years.
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This review of the global prevalence of dental anxiety in children and adolescents included 50 studies reported in 57 papers. The findings showed that dental anxiety is a frequent problem in 3‐ to 18‐year‐olds worldwide being commoner in schoolchildren and preschool children than in adolescents.
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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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This review of interventions promoting parental supervised toothbrushing practices to reduce caries in children under 8 years included 42 studies. Few of the interventions were underpinned by theory and methodological rigour in their development and evaluation so future interventions need to be guided by complex intervention methodology.
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Marianne Dobson takes a look at this systematic review of the orofacial manifestations of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). The review included 30 studies and provides a narrative summary of a issues related to orofacial symptoms and management. However good quality prospective studies are needed to improve the the quality of evidence surrounding this topic.
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This review investigating the relationship between drug use (methamphetamines, heroin, opiates, cocaine, cannabis and crack) and oral health includes 10 observational studies showing a higher risk of caries.
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This review of whether oral health promotion programmes for community‐dwelling elderly were effective in improving oral health and oral saliva secretion or in decreasing dry mouth included 9 studies most of which came from a single country
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