Our most popular blogs in July August and September covered periodontal surgery, Interproximal caries detection and local anaesthesia for inferior alveolar nerve blocks.
[read the full story...]Top Dental Elf Blogs: Jul – Sep 2020
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Access flap procedures or subgingival debridement for periodontitis?
This review comparing access flaps (AF) and subgingival debridement in achieving probing depth (PD) reduction in patients with periodontitis included 18 studies reported in 36 publications. While the results demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in PD reduction between AF and subgingival debridement this may not be clinically important.
[read the full story...]Smoking and its impact on non-surgical periodontal therapy
This review of the impact of smoking on clinical outcomes of non-surgical periodontal treatment included 17 cohort studies of whihc 11 were prospective. The findings suggest statistically significant smaller improvements in the smoking that non-smoking group. However, any differences are modest and my not be clinically important.
[read the full story...]Photodynamic therapy as an adjunct to non-surgical periodontal treatment
This review of the adjunctive effects of lasers or antimicrobial photodynamic therapy (aPDT) to non-surgical periodontal treatment included 17 RCTs. The studies were small and hetrogeneous including just 701 patients in total and of low quality providing very limited evidence.
[read the full story...]Periodontitis: Locally delivered antimicrobials as an adjunct to non-surgical treatment
This review of of locally delivered antimicrobials as an adjunct to scaling and root planing (SRP) for the non-surgical treatment of patients with periodontitis included 50 RCTs. While the findings indicate statistically significant benefits for probing pocket depth and clinical attachment level (CAL) at 6-9 months and for CAL at 12-60 months their clinical importance can be questioned. In addition most of the studies(47) were considered to be at high risk of bias.
[read the full story...]Periodontitis: Systemic antimicrobials as an adjunct to non-surgical treatment
This Cochrane review of the effects of systemic antimicrobials as an adjunct to scaling and root planing (SRP) for the non-surgical treatment of patients with periodontitis identified 45 RCTs. However the evidence is of very low certainty to inform tclinicians and patients if adjunctive antibiotics are beneficial.
[read the full story...]Chlorhexidine chip as adjunct to scaling and root planing in patients with chronic periodontitis
This review of sub-gingival chlorhexidine chips as an adjunct to scaling and root planing in patients with chronic periodontitis included 15 RCTs involving 620 patients in total. Findings suggest an additional improvement with adjunctive use of chlorhexidine chips.
[read the full story...]Dental check-ups: How often should you go?
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.
[read the full story...]Subgingival instrumentation for treating periodontitis
This review evaluating the efficacy of subgingival instruments for the treatment of periodontitis included 19 RCTs. The findings show that mechanical subgingival instrumentation is efficacious in the nonsurgical treatment of periodontitis, irrespective of type of instrument or mode of delivery.
[read the full story...]Propolis-based mouthwashes
This review evaluating the evidence regarding the efficacy of propolis-based mouthwash on dental plaque and gingival inflammation included 9 RCTs. While the findings suggest potential benefit from propolis-based mouthwash the quality of the available evidence is very low and additional high quality studies are needed to assess any benefits.
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