Epidemiology and oral function associated with tooth loss and prosthetic dental restorations. Consensus report of Working Group 1

Abstract: The method used by the working group was an iterative process based upon literature reviews of relevant publications by a working group of rapporteurs. The review papers were written and circulated before the conference and served as basis of discussion. Each paper was subject to a detailed collective analysis and modified and amended on the basis of the work group's discussions and referenced to additional relevant literature where appropriate. The group assessed the levels of evidence for the statements made in the supporting documentation and recognised that it was necessary to adopt a compromise between acceptance of the lowest level of evidence, resulting in the largest body of material, and the highest level which produced valuable but limited evidence. Where the objectives were not concerning an intervention, an RCT study design was not applicable and no focussed question could be formulated. Rather cross-sectional and repeated cross-sectional, as well as longitudinal cohort studies, were usually the evidence available.     

Biomechanical aspects of oral implants

Abstract: The method used by the working group was an iterative process based upon a structured review of the relevant literature by a group of rapporteurs. The review papers were circulated to the members of the group before the conference and formed the basis for subsequent discussions. Each paper was subject to detailed collective analysis and subsequently modified on the basis of the panel's discussions and referenced to additional relevant literature where appropriate. The group assessed the levels of evidence for the statements made in the supporting documentation and recognized that it was necessary to adopt a compromise between acceptance of the lowest level, resulting in the largest body of material, and the highest level, which, in some cases, produced little evidence. While this approach does not represent endorsement of lower evidence levels per se , it was designed to provide conclusions of clinical utility within the existing knowledge base. The consensus statements were prepared after a detailed consideration of the papers submitted to the workshop by the working group. The papers were scrutinized, amended and approved by the group. The basis of each paper is described in the section on 'search strategy' and defines the parameters within which the consensus statements were prepared.     

Biomechanical aspects of oral implants. Consensus report of Working Group 1

The method used by the working group was an iterative process based upon a structured review of the relevant literature by a group of reporters. The review papers were circulated to the members of the group before the conference and formed the basis for subsequent discussions. Each paper was subject to detailed collective analysis and subsequently modified on the basis of the panel's discussions and referenced to additional relevant literature where appropriate. The group assessed the levels of evidence for the statements made in the supporting documentation and recognized that it was necessary to adopt a compromise between acceptance of the lowest level, resulting in the largest body of material, and the highest level, which, in some cases, produced little evidence. While this approach does not represent endorsement of lower evidence levels per se, it was designed to provide conclusions of clinical utility within the existing knowledge base. The consensus statements were prepared after a detailed consideration of the papers submitted to the workshop by the working group. The papers were scrutinized, amended and approved by the group. The basis of each paper is described in the section on 'search strategy' and defines the parameters within which the consensus statements were prepared.     

Function. Consensus report of Working Group 3

Abstract: The method used by the working group was an iterative process based upon a structured review of the relevant literature by the four author groups. Review papers were circulated to the members of the group before the conference and formed the basis for subsequent discussions. Each paper was subject to detailed collective analysis and subsequently modified on the basis of the panel's discussions and referenced to additional relevant literature where appropriate. The group assessed the levels of evidence for the claims and statements made in the supporting documentation. It was recognized that it was often necessary to adopt a compromise between acceptance of the lowest level, resulting in the largest body of material, and the highest level, which in some cases, produced little evidence. While this approach does not represent endorsement of lower evidence levels per se , it was designed to provide conclusions of clinical utility within the existing knowledge base. The papers, following the scrutiny, were amended and approved by the expert group. The consensus report was prepared by the working group after detailed considerations of the five approved papers.     

Materials. Consensus report of Working Group 4

Abstract: The method used by the working group was an iterative process based upon a structured review of the relevant literature by a group of rapporteurs. The literature was searched using common databanks (e.g., Medline, Pubmed, Cochrane Library etc.), and also by performing manual searches in the non-indexed literature. The review papers were circulated to the members of the group before and during a conference that served as the basis for subsequent discussions. Each paper was subject to detailed collective analysis and subsequently modified on the basis of panel's discussion and referred to additional relevant literature where appropriate. The consensus statements were prepared after a detailed consideration of the papers submitted to the workshop by the working group. The papers were scrutinized, amended and approved by the group.     

Factors influencing survival of reconstructions. Consensus report of Working Group 2

Abstract: In order to evaluate the level of evidence of factors influencing the survival of reconstructions, systematic reviews of the relevant literature were prepared by a group of rapporteurs. The review papers were circulated to the members of the group before the conference and formed the basis for group and panel discussions. Subsequently, modifications were added to the review papers, and suggestions for consensus statements concerning the following topics were prepared and again critically reviewed in the group and in the plenum: Impact of (i) periodontal disease on the survival of tooth-supported reconstructions, (ii) post-surgical factors as supportive therapy on the survival of implant supported reconstructions, (iii) technical and/or biological complications on the survival of different types of reconstructions, (iiii) material choice for reconstructions on the survival of single crowns and fixed dental prostheses.     

A Retrospective Evaluation of the Survival Rates of Splinted and Non‐Splinted Short Dental Implants in Posterior Partially Edentulous Jaws

Background: The aim of the present study is to evaluate the survival rate and bone loss around short implants (≤10 mm) supporting splinted or non‐splinted posterior prostheses during a follow‐up period of 3 to 16 years. Methods: A total of 453 implants from 198 patients was divided into splinted or non‐splinted groups. Implant survival rate was calculated for each group, and potential risk was represented as odds ratio (OR). The final linear distance from implant platform level to the first bone‐to‐implant contact was compared to this same reference just after loading by digital periapical radiographs to determine the marginal bone loss (BL). Results: The splinted group comprised 219 implants in 86 patients, whereas the non‐splinted group included 234 implants from 112 patients. The mean follow‐up period was 9.7 ± 3.7 years. Although different success rates were found for splinted (97.7%) and non‐splinted (93.2%) groups, they exhibited similar BL (1.22 ± 0.95 mm and 1.27 ± 1.15 mm, respectively). The success of splinted implants was associated with no other variable, whereas non‐splinted implants exhibited higher risk of failure when placed in men (OR = 3.2) and when implants shorter than 10 mm were used (OR = 3.6 and 4.1 for 8.5 mm and 7 mm, respectively). Regardless of group, 71.4% of the unsuccessful implants failed before the end of the first year after loading. Conclusion: Non‐splinted posterior short implants had a somewhat lower success rate than splinted short implants, and the failure rate in non‐splinted short implants appeared to be greater in males as well as in implants ≤10 mm.     

Influence of the mineral content and morphological pattern of artificial root caries lesion on composite resin bond strength

Dentine substrates with different mineral contents and morphological patterns were created by submitting root slabs to the following treatments: (A) immersion in artificial saliva during the experimental period (control), (B) demineralization for 32 h to induce caries lesion (demineralized group), and (C) demineralization for 32 h followed by remineralization for 8 d (remineralized group). The slabs were longitudinally sectioned, the mineral content was determined by cross-sectional microhardness, and the bond strength of an adhesive system/composite resin was assessed using a microtensile bond strength test. The dentine morphology after the treatments as well as the failure pattern of the debonded specimens was examined by scanning electron microscopy. Statistically significant differences were found in mineral content. Morphological analysis showed marked differences between the patterns of demineralized and remineralized substrates. The bond strength mean value of the control A did not differ from the group B, but was statistically higher than the group C. Since no linear relationship was found between dentine mineral content and bond strength values, it could be suggested that the morphological pattern may be more relevant than the mineral content to explain the bond strength of composite resin to dentine.     

Evaluation of the efficacy of a prosthodontic stent in determining the position of dental implants

Purpose: To evaluate the efficacy of a dual purpose (diagnostic and surgical) acrylic resin stent with gutta percha marker used in conjunction with 3D imaging in determination of the position and inclination of dental implants. Materials and Methods: This study was performed as a case control study. A total of 41 implants, of which 20 had been placed without the use of stents and 3D imaging (control group) and 21 were placed using stents and 3D imaging (study group), were studied. A diagnostic and surgical stent with radio‐opaque indicator (gutta percha) was fabricated to determine the planned prosthetic position and inclination of the implant. Computed tomography images were obtained and were analyzed using Denta Scan software. The position of the implant was analyzed in mesiodistal and buccolingual dimensions in terms of both position and angulation. SPSS v15.0 was used for statistical analysis (p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant). Results: The study group demonstrated an overall 98.9% efficacy of the test technique being used in the study. On qualitative assessment, the results obtained were within the defined ideal threshold level for four of five parameters (distance from buccal and lingual cortical plate, inter‐implant distance, and buccolingual angulation of the implant relative to underlying alveolar bone). For mesiodistal distance from adjacent teeth, the observation was not above threshold value for only one case. For the control group, the overall efficacy was 66.9%. Conclusion: The technique of combined use of a prosthodontic stent and 3D imaging is an efficacious and better technique in achieving an ideal position of dental implants as compared to conventional techniques using periapical and panoramic radiographs and a cast.     

A systematic review and meta‐analysis of 3‐unit fixed dental prostheses: Are the results of 2 abutment implants comparable to the results of 2 abutment teeth?

The purpose of the systematic review and meta‐analysis was to compare the performance of 3‐unit bridges on teeth with 3‐unit bridges on implants, evaluating survival of the bridges, survival of the teeth or implants, condition of the hard and soft tissues surrounding the supports, complications and patient‐reported outcome measures (PROM) after a mean observation period of at least 1 year. A literature search was conducted using a combination of the search terms: fixed partial denture and fixed dental prostheses (FDPs). An electronic search for data published until January 2017 was undertaken using the MEDLINE, EMBASE and Cochrane Library databases. Eligibility criteria included clinical human studies, either randomised or not, interventional or observational, which evaluated the results of 3‐unit FDPs on either 2 implants or 2 abutment teeth. The search identified 1686 unique references. After applying eligibility criteria, 66 articles were included in the analysis. A total of 1973 3‐unit FDPs were supported by teeth, and 765 were implant‐supported. No significant differences were found either in the survival of the supporting abutments (P = .52; 99% vs 98.7% survival per year) or in the survival of the prostheses (P = .34; 96.4% vs 97.4% survival per year). Both treatments show an almost equally low complication rate, but there is a low level of reporting of hard and soft tissue conditions and PROM. It is concluded that implant‐supported 3‐unit FDPs seem to be a reliable treatment with survival rates not significantly different from the results of teeth‐supported 3‐unit FDPs.     

Framework design and pontics of fiber-reinforced composite fixed dental prostheses — An overview

Purpose

Fiber-reinforced composite (FRC) fixed dental prostheses (FDPs) have shown good performance in clinical applications due to their good mechanical properties and minimally invasive approach. However, typical failure patterns of FRC FDPs are often localized at the pontic site. That reflects the structural considerations at the framework and pontic location that need to be examined when creating these kinds of prostheses.

Formation of a hard tissue barrier after pulp cappings in humans. A systematic review

AIM: To evaluate the evidence on the formation of a hard tissue barrier after pulp capping in humans. METHODOLOGY: A PubMed and CENTRAL literature search with specific indexing terms and a hand search were made. The authors assessed the level of evidence of each publication as high, moderate or low. Based on this, the evidence grade of the conclusions was rated as strong, moderately strong, limited or insufficient. RESULTS: The initial search process resulted in a total of 171 publications. After reading the abstracts and hand searching the reference lists of the retrieved publications, 107 studies were retrieved in full-text and interpreted. After the interpretation, 21 studies remained and were included in the systematic review and given a level of evidence. No study had a high level of evidence, one study had moderate and 20 studies had a low level of evidence. There was heterogeneity between the studies; therefore, no meta-analysis was performed. The majority of studies on pulp capping using calcium hydroxide based materials reported formation of hard tissue bridging, studies on other pulp capping materials such as bonding agents presented inferior results. The evidence grade was insufficient. CONCLUSIONS: Insufficient evidence grade does not necessarily imply that there is no effect of a pulp capping procedure or that it should not be used. Rather, the insufficient evidence underpins the need for high-quality studies.     

Assessment of the readability of dental health education literature

General dental practitioners have an important role in the dissemination of information to their patients and their advice is often reinforced with written health education material. Unfortunately, this written information is often of limited value for particular groups of patients because of its level of readability. This investigation of the problem was in two parts; firstly, a group of 140 secondary schoolchildren were asked to explain the meaning of a selection of words in common use in dental health education, and secondly, the readability of some current dental health education literature was assessed using the Fog Index. The results indicate that current dental health education literature reflects the reading ability of the designers rather than the ability of the potential target group. Many of the words in the dental profession's preventive vocabulary were not understood by the children. Over 80% were unsure of the meaning of fluoride tablets, gum disease, gingivitis and oral hygiene. The results of this investigation indicate that dentists should ensure that dental health education literature is not unduly complex and should take more time explaining the dental vocabulary in lay terminology.     

Association between Orthopedic and Dental Findings: What Level of Evidence is Available?

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this systematic review was to provide comprehensive access to and an analysis of the specialist literature published through December 2005 describing a correlation between orthopedic (leg-length inequality, pelvis obliquity, column diseases and head posture) and dental findings (occlusion, mandibular position, temporomandibular joints, masticatory muscles). METHOD: Four medical and dental internet sources (PubMed; Medpilot.de; databases of the Deutsche Arzte-Verlag and Quintessenz-Verlag) were screened for relevant articles using carefully selected retrieval strategies and keywords. Bibliographies of relevant articles were examined for further pertinent publications. All relevant articles were tabulated according to their year of publication, the subject area discussed, and the levels of scientific evidence. RESULTS: Our electronic inquiry yielded 359 relevant articles (electronic search: 195, search in bibliographies: 164), 355 of which could be analyzed. A correlation between dental findings and spinal column diseases was described in 266 articles, head posture in 216, pelvis obliquity in 53, and leg-length inequality in 35 papers. In 131 publications, conclusions were drawn from dental to orthopedic findings, whereas they were drawn from orthopedic to dental findings in 171 articles. The number of relevant articles rose significantly, particularly since the 1980's. Classification in levels of evidence reveals three publications (0.8%) with level II (randomized controlled trials), 63 (17.7%) with level III (experimental studies with no randomization, cohort studies, or case-control studies), 178 (50.1%) with level IV (non-experimental studies, such as cross-sectional trials, case series, case reports), and 111 (31.3%) with level V (narrative review or expert opinion without explicit critical appraisal). CONCLUSIONS: 1) While there is great interest in possible correlations between orthopedic and dental findings in the specialist literature, most publications fail to provide the hard facts and solid evidence characteristic of high-quality research. 2) This literature analysis attests to the importance of searching electronic databases while making the inherent weaknesses of such searches obvious. Manual literature searches remain essential.     

Within-subject comparison of maxillary long-bar implant-retained prostheses with and without palatal coverage: patient-based outcomes

Although maxillary implant overdentures are used in oral rehabilitation, different designs have not been compared previously in clinical trials. This crossover trial was designed to measure differences in patient satisfaction with maxillary long-bar implant overdentures with and without palatal coverage opposed by a fixed mandibular implant-supported prosthesis. Data were also gathered on new conventional dentures and on maxillary conventional dentures opposed by mandibular fixed prostheses. Sixteen participants were selected from a population wearing conventional dentures. Fifteen received new upper and lower dentures (1 drop-out). Four implants were placed in the maxilla and mandible (2 drop-outs). A mandibular fixed prosthesis was inserted in 13 participants, who were then divided into 2 groups. One group (n = 7) received long-bar overdentures with palate, then long-bar overdentures without palate. The other group (n = 6) received the same treatments in the reverse order. Mastication tests and psychometric evaluations using Visual Analog Scales and Categorical Scales were performed throughout the study. General satisfaction was very high with both maxillary implant-supported prostheses, as were ratings of almost all psychosocial and functional variables. There were no significant differences between treatments, suggesting that patients are equally satisfied with long-bar overdentures with and without palate when these are opposed by mandibular fixed prostheses. However, the ratings given to the maxillary implant prostheses were not significantly higher than for new conventional maxillary prostheses. This suggests that maxillary implant prostheses should not be considered as a general treatment of choice in patients with good bony support for maxillary conventional prostheses.     

不同种类的固定修复体市场需求分析

目的探讨不同种类固定修复体的市场需求和需求变化。方法收集四川华西义齿修复制作中心2009—2011年生产的95 789件固定修复体为研究对象,统计产量构成比、绘制产量趋势图,分析固定修复体的市场需求及变化,采用季节指数分析固定修复体的产量规律。结果金属烤瓷修复体的构成比达到90%以上,钯银合金烤瓷修复体是主要的修复体选择类别,镍铬合金烤瓷修复体产量逐年降低,钴铬合金烤瓷修复体、种植体固定修复体、全瓷修复体产量保持稳定增长,金铂合金烤瓷修复体稳定在一定水平呈上下波动;季节指数的高峰为7月,指数达到1.155 56,低谷为2月,指数达到0.840 79,季节指数最高和最低月份相差0.314 77。结论金属烤瓷修复体占市场需求的主导地位,镍铬合金烤瓷修复体的产量逐年降低并逐渐被钴铬合金烤瓷修复体代替,固定修复体的产量存在季节波动,应优化资源配置并积极推广新技术。     

A path analysis of the utilization of dental services

In this paper Andersen's model of health services utilization is applied to the use of dental visits. This analysis builds on previous work by including clinical oral health indicators rather than self-reports as measures of need by using a path model to analyze the dynamics of predisposing, enabling and need factors on dental utilization. The sample consisted of 287 volunteers who were employees of a university health center. The path analysis using ordinary least squares found that sex was the most important variable affecting use of services. Men tended to have higher number of visits due to higher need and women more visits regardless of need. A surprising result was that income had no significant effect on volume of dental visits, which contradicts much of the literature in the area. Finally, the analysis suggests that because of the nature of clinical oral health indicators cross-sectional analysis of dental service utilization may not be appropriate.     

Interdental caries incidence and progression in relation to mutans streptococci suppression after chlorhexidine-thymol varnish treatments in schoolchildren

The aim of this study was to evaluate interdental caries incidence and progression in relation to the effect of antibacterial varnish treatments in schoolchildren anticipated at caries risk. After a screening procedure, 110 healthy children (8-10 years) with moderate and high counts of salivary mutans streptococci (MS) were invited to join a 2-year longitudinal study. At baseline, MS were enumerated at all mesial interdental sites of the first permanent molars with a chair-side technique. The children were then treated 3 times within 2 weeks by interdental spot applications with a 1% chlorhexidine/thymol-containing varnish (Cervitec^®). Follow-up samples of saliva and plaque were collected 1, 3, 6, and 12 months after onset of treatment. Caries prevalence, incidence and progression of the selected approximal surfaces were scored from bitewing radiographs exposed at baseline and after 2 years. Sixty-three children of the same age formed a non-varnish-treated reference group. Reduction of caries incidence and progression was clearly dependent on the outcome of the antibacterial treatment. A significantly (P &lt; 0.01) higher progression score was found among children who exhibited a less marked suppression of interdental MS levels compared with those with high suppression and the children of the reference group. The results suggest that a suppression of MS in interdental plaque may be an important event to prevent and arrest approximal caries development in schoolchildren at risk. Monitoring the effect of antibacterial agents in a site-specific way could therefore be advocated.