The latest medical research on Dentistry

The Midwifery Initiated Oral Health-Dental Service was developed to train midwives to promote maternal oral health, and a large trial showed it substantially improved the oral health, knowledge and behaviours of pregnant women.

Evaluate the long-term effectiveness of the program (post-trial) on maternal oral health knowledge, dental behaviours, and early childhood caries in offspring.

A prospective cohort study involving 204 women and children 3-4 years (followed after trial) was conducted in Sydney, Australia from 2017 to 2019.

The program did not have a significant impact on the study measures. Mothers who received the program did have comparatively better knowledge around preventative behaviours to reduce early childhood caries and significantly more mothers were engaging in a key behaviour of using a cup to feed their child. Overall maternal oral health knowledge and level of education did have a protective effect on the dental decay of children. Higher knowledge and levels of education reduced the odds of having a dmft of one or more by over half (OR 0.473), and almost 80% (OR 0.212) respectively.

Although the MIOH-DS program was not effective, there is still value in exploring other complementary interventions to improve maternal oral health, especially for disadvantaged families. Future research should focus on co-designing an antenatal and postnatal oral health intervention and exploring its long-term impact on the oral health of children.

Studies related to non-surgical root canal treatment are amongst the most frequently performed clinical studies in endodontics. However, heterogeneity in reporting outcomes and lack of standardisation is a significant challenge to evidence synthesis and guideline development.

The aims of the present scoping review were to: a) identify outcomes reported in systematic reviews evaluating non-surgical root canal treatment; b) identify how and when the reported outcomes were measured; c) assess possible selective reporting bias in the included studies. The information obtained in this study should inform the development of a core outcome set (COS) for non-surgical root canal treatment.

Structured literature searches were performed to identify systematic reviews on non-surgical root canal treatments published in English between January 1990 and December 2020. Two reviewers undertook study selection and data extraction. Outcomes were categorized according to a healthcare taxonomy into five core areas (survival, clinical/physiological changes, life impact, resource use, and adverse events). The outcome measurement tools and length of follow-up was recorded.

75 systematic reviews were included, of which 40 included meta-analyses. Most reviews reported on physiological and clinical outcomes, primarily pain and/or radiographic assessment of periapical status, and a variety of measurement tools and scales were used. Few reviews focused on tooth survival, life impact, resources and adverse events. The heterogeneity among the reviews was large on all parameters. Less than 40% of the reviews assessed the risk of selective reporting.

Most studies reported on physiological and clinical outcomes, in particular pain and/or radiographic healing. Measurement tools, scales, thresholds, and follow-up periods varied greatly within each outcome, making comparison across studies complicated. Less than 40% of the reviews assessed risk of selective reporting, thus selective bias could not be ruled out. The presented information on reported outcomes, measurement tools and scales, and length of follow-up may guide the planning of future research and inform the development of a COS for non-surgical root canal treatment.