The Top 102 Most Cited Publications Relevant to Dental Education

Background: Growth and development in dental education globally depend on effective experience sharing and advocation of evidence-based practice, preferably tested via vigorous peer evaluation. Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the most cited dental education publications. The objectives were to identify the most productive entities, and the most frequently investigated themes and specialties. Results: The top publications included 83 original articles, 15 reviews, 3 books, and 1 online document, written by 30 different authors, with 38 publications from dental journals not dedicated to education, and with an average of 5.5 citations per year. The most productive author was William Hendrickson. The most productive institutions were from Europe and the United States. There were 11 papers focused on operative dentistry, 9 on endodontology, 4 on special care dentistry, 2 on community dentistry, 2 on periodontology, and 2 on implantology. Within the top 102 list, 21 publications focused on the stress experienced by dental students at school. A multiple ANCOVA indicates that citation counts in these highly cited publications are associated with a number of authors and document types, such as “reviews/books/online document” compared with original articles (p < 0.001). Conclusion: Influential dental education studies were published on a variety of platforms. Over the past 20 years, the field witnessed the emergence of highly cited reports/articles. Similar to influential papers in various fields, the number of authors per top-cited dental education publications appeared to be associated with high citations indicating top quality and high appreciation/acceptance of the articles involved.

An Experience of Public Dental Care during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Reflection and Analysis

Since its emergence in China, the COVID-19 pandemic has become the number 1 health challenge in the world with all affected countries trying to learn from each other’s experiences. When it comes to health services, dental care does not seem to be a priority area, despite the fact that it is among the highest risk medical specialisations in terms of spreading the infection. Using the Department of Community Dentistry of Semmelweis University as a case study, the objective of this paper is to introduce and analyze the system and organizational level measures, which have been implemented in dental care in Hungary during the first months of the COVID-19 outbreak. The system level measures to promote social distancing, to reduce the use of health services and to protect high risk health professionals, together with the deployment of protective equipment and the reorganization of patient pathways at the organizational level proved to be effective in keeping the outbreak in control. There are two, less frequently mentioned ingredients of successful coping with the COVID-19 challenge. First, mental health support is at least as important as physical protection. Second, most of the interventions do not require big financial investments, but behavioural change, which in turn requires leadership and change management skills.

Oxford Handbook of Clinical Dentistry

The Oxford Handbook of Clinical Dentistry distils the essentials of clinical practice. It balances a pragmatic approach alongside evidence-based clinical knowledge, guidelines, and protocols. It details how to take a history and perform an examination, moving on to discussing preventive and community dentistry, paediatric dentistry, and orthodontics. It thoroughly examines the subject of restorative dentistry through periodontology, tooth repair, tooth replacement, endodontics, and dental implants. It also explores oral surgery, oral medicine, and maxillofacial surgery. It reviews medicine relevant to dentistry, therapeutics, analgesia, anaesthesia, sedation, and dental materials. It explores law and ethics, professionalism and communication, and practice management, as well as syndromes of the head and neck, and also includes summary useful information and addresses. It is written for undergraduate dental students, dental foundation trainees, qualified dental practitioners, medical graduates and nurses involved in hospital dental specialities, and MJDF/MFDS trainees.

Preventive and community dentistry

This chapter outlines caries development, progression, and prevention as well as the role of saliva in neutralizing harmful acids in the oral environment. The action of fluoride is also discussed including appropriate doses, supplementation, professional application, and toxicity. Evidence for the role of sugar in dental caries is then described. This chapter has an emphasis on preventative dentistry including the use of fissure sealants in varying age groups, going on to highlight the importance of diet assessment and modification in high caries-risk patients. The chapter also discusses dentistry for people with disabilities and has a section on different types of dental care professionals.

Italian guidelines for the prevention and management of dental trauma in children

Dental trauma is a frequent occurrence in children and adolescent and a correct diagnosis and treatment are essential for a favourable long-term prognosis. The present Guidelines aim to formulate evidence-based recommendations to assist dentists, paediatricians, surgeons, teachers, school and sport staff, parents in the prevention and first aid of dental trauma in children and to provide a careful assessment of the medico-legal implications, reviewing the first draft of the guidelines published in 2012. A multidisciplinary panel on the behalf of the Italian Ministry of Health and in collaboration with the WHO Collaborating Centre for Epidemiology and Community Dentistry of Milan, developed this document. The following four queries were postulated: 1) Which kind of precautions the health personnel, parents, sports and educational personnel must activate in order to prevent the dental trauma damage? 2) How an orofacial trauma in paediatric patients should be managed either in the Emergency Care Unit and/or in private dental office? 3) What criteria should be adopted by a dentist private practitioner to fill in a certificate in cases of dental and/or tempomandibular joint trauma occurring in children and adolescents? 4) What are the elements that should lead clinicians to suspect a non-accidental dental trauma? A systematic review and analysis of the scientific literature published in English, Italian and French from 2007 to 2017 regarding dental trauma in children and adolescents aged 0–18 years was performed, and about 100 papers were analysed and included. The following four domains were analysed and discussed: Dental Trauma Prevention Strategies and Health Education, First aid in orofacial and dental trauma, Certificate of the dental trauma, Oral and dental signs of child abuse and neglect. Twenty-eight recommendations were draw up and codified by the panel according to the Methodological handbook, produced by the Istituto Superiore di Sanità, in order to guide physicians in the prevention and first aid of dental trauma in children and adolescents. In addition, a careful assessment of the medico-legal implications is reported in this document.