No evidence that treatment of gum disease reduces the number of babies born before 37 weeks of pregnancy

Periodontal disease is a disease of the supporting tissues of the teeth that may affect the gums, periodontal ligament membrane, and bone around the tooth socket. It has been linked with infections, which some researchers believe could lead to or have an impact on a number of conditions, including problems in pregnancy. Periodontal disease is common in women of reproductive age, and gum conditions tend to worsen during pregnancy due to hormonal changes. The treatment involves bringing plaque on the teeth down to minimal levels, to reduce and resolve inflammation of the gums. It could involve counselling on oral hygiene measures, removing the plaque and calculus by using hand instruments (e.g. scale and polish) or ultrasound equipment (e.g. mechanical debridement), sometimes alongside the use of antibiotics or antiseptic mouthwashes or gels. If the nonsurgical treatment is not successful, surgery is sometimes required. This review assessed studies where pregnant women with gum disease were treated using a combination of techniques, with or without antibiotics.

Cochrane and related training: summer 2017

If you’re looking for some systematic review training in July, August or September this year, click on the links to find out more!

Chlorhexidine mouthrinse reduces plaque and can improve gum health in people with low levels of gingivitis

Gingivitis is a reversible condition when gums become red, swollen and can bleed easily. Gingivitis is also very common – studies suggest that as many as 50% to 90% of adults in the UK and USA suffer from it. In susceptible people gingivitis may lead to periodontitis, which is not reversible. In periodontitis inflammation is accompanied by loss of ligaments and bone supporting the teeth. If untreated it may eventually lead to tooth loss. Severe periodontitis is the sixth most widespread disease globally.

It is recognised that maintaining a high standard of oral hygiene is important for the prevention and treatment of gingivitis. Toothbrushing is the main method for maintaining good oral hygiene. Other cleaning methods commonly used include dental floss, interdental brushes and scaling and polishing carried out by a dental professional. Some people have difficulty controlling plaque build-up and preventing gingivitis using only conventional tooth cleaning. Therefore people sometimes use mouthrinses containing chlorhexidine in addition to conventional tooth cleaning. These mouthrinses are readily available over the counter; prescriptions generally not being required outside the USA.

12 months on: Cochrane Oral Health, Dundee Dental School, and Wikipedia – a project update

Cochrane Oral Health’s Co-ordinating Editor Jan Clarkson talks to the Wikipedia Editing Team at Dundee Dental School

Last summer, we blogged about the fantastic project to update articles about dentistry on Wikipedia, led by the students at Dundee Dental School.

The team have been doing excellent work to update Wikipedia with Cochrane evidence. The project has been running since January 2016, led by Dundee graduate Nour Geres.

Cochrane and related training, April to June 2017

There’s some great workshops available to join coming up soon. Follow the links for more details, including course content and fees…

Lasers may help to reduce pain in orthodontic treatment: but more high quality research is needed

Pain is usual during orthodontic treatment, especially when a brace is placed on the teeth. Later adjustments of the brace can also result in pain, sometimes lasting up to a week or more. This can make people stop their orthodontic treatment, meaning that the benefits are lost. Painkillers have been recommended to reduce pain, but an effective non-drug solution would lower the risk of side effects and help people follow the full course of treatment.

Filling materials for retreatment of failed root canals – only very low quality evidence is available from RCTs

The living part of the tooth, also known as the tooth pulp, can become irreversibly inflamed as a result of damage or bacterial infection due to tooth decay. To deal with this problem, the dentist has to drill a hole to access the inner space of the tooth or root canal system, and remove the infected tissue and toxic irritants by a combination of mechanical cleaning and irrigation. After this is done, the dentist fills the space with an inert packing material and seals the opening. This procedure is known as root canal therapy. Although results are generally good, a small number of failures do occur. This may be attributed to the complexity of the root canal system, which has many small additional pathways communicating with each other, making it difficult to completely eliminate all of the toxins and irritants. These can spread, causing the infection around the root to last indefinitely. When root canal therapy fails, a retreatment called retrograde filling is a good alternative to save the tooth. During retrograde filling the dentist cuts a flap in the gum and creates a hole in the bone to get access to the bottom tip of the root. After cutting off the tip, then thorough preparation, the apex is sealed (the apical seal) and the hole made by the dentist filled with a dental material. This sealing process is thought to be the single most important factor in achieving success in a retrograde root filling. Many materials have been developed to seal the root tip, mineral trioxide aggregate is the material of interest at present, but there is no consensus about which material is best.