Introduction/Aim: To appraise the clinical literature in determining whether loss of complete sealant retention as surrogate endpoint is directly associated with caries occurrence on sealed teeth as its clinical endpoint and to apply the appraised evidence in testing the null-hypothesis that the retention/caries ratio between different types of sealant materials (resin and glass-ionomer cement) is not statistically significant ( = Prentice criterion for surrogate endpoint validity). Method...
Background: Naı¨ve-indirect comparisons are comparisons between competing clinical interventions’ evidence from separate (uncontrolled) trials. Direct comparisons are comparisons within randomised control trials (RCTs). The objective of this empirical study is to test the null-hypothesis that trends and performance differences inferred from naı¨ve-indirect comparisons and from direct comparisons/RCTs regarding the failure rates of amalgam and direct high-viscosity glassionomer cemen...
Background: Randomised controlled trials (RCT) are highly influential upon medical decisions. Thus RCTs must not distort the truth. One threat to internal trial validity is the correct prediction of future allocations (selection bias). The Berger-Exner test detects such bias but has not been widely utilized in practice. One reason for this non-utilisation may be a lack of information regarding its test accuracy. The objective of this study is to assess the accuracy of the Berger-Exner test...
BACKGROUND: A large percentage of evidence concerning dental interventions is based on laboratory research. The apparent wealth of laboratory evidence is sometimes used as basis for clinical inference and recommendations for daily dental practice. In this study two null-hypotheses are tested: whether trial results from laboratory and controlled clinical trials concerning the comparison of high-viscosity glass-ionomer cements (HVGIC) to amalgam for restorations placed in permanent posterior te...
Background: To develop a synthesis within a Bayesian probability framework of previously established evidence, in order to derive an overall conclusion about the hypothesis (H1): ‘High-viscosity glass-ionomer cements (HVGIC) are inferior to silver amalgam as (load bearing) restorative materials for permanent posterior teeth’. Methods: Following Bayesian method, the prior Odds that H1 is true (established from past uncontrolled clinical longitudinal and laboratory trials), the Likelihoo...
PURPOSE: Traditionally, resin composite restorations are claimed by reviews of the dental literature as being superior to glass-ionomer fillings in terms of restoration failures in posterior permanent teeth. The aim of this systematic review is to answer the clinical question, whether conventional high-viscosity glass-ionomer restorations, in patients with single and/or multi-surface cavities in posterior permanent teeth, have indeed a higher failure rate than direct hybrid resin composite re...
Valid surrogate endpoints that are clinically meaningful require compliance with the Prentice criterion: (i) the surrogate needs to correlate with its true clinical endpoint and (ii) the surrogate/clinical endpoint correlation needs to be independent from the treatment type applied. This means that for sealant retention to be a valid surrogate for caries prevention the material retention-loss risk should be directly associated with the caries risk and that such association holds true re...
BACKGROUND: Glass-ionomers are traditionally regarded to be inferior to resin as fissure sealants in protecting teeth from dental caries, due to their comparatively lower retention rate. Unlike low-viscosity glass-ionomers, high-viscosity glass-ionomer cements (HVGIC) are placed as sealants by pressing the material into pits and fissures with a petroleum-jelly-coated index finger. Hence, HVGIC sealants are assumed to penetrate pits and fissures deeper, resulting in a higher material retention...
Fissure sealant retention is traditionally considered as a proxy measure for caries prevention. This study investigated the logic behind this proposition, and its validity. A logical framework of the proposition was established. The mechanism of caries development was transferred into a Directed acyclic graph, and this was used to investigate the logical framework. The sensitivity and specificity of full sealant retention in the prediction of dental carious lesion development and the...
Uncontrolled trials are criticized as unreliable. This study aimed to establish how the number of published reports from uncontrolled clinical trials compares to that of controlled trials for directly placed restorations in vital teeth and whether their annual number is increasing, stable or decreasing. PubMed was searched and suitable citations of uncontrolled and controlled trial reports published between 1990–2016 were included. Reference check and hand searching were conducted. T...
Hyperglycaemic emergency (HE) is a frequent complication of diabetes mellitus (DM) and one of the commonest causes of hospitalization and death among people living with diabetes and previously unknown diabetes. Mortality from HE is still high in developing countries such as Nigeria; mortality being dependent on co-morbid conditions and precipitating factors. There is no report yet in the literature on the contribution of pre-hospitalization settings to outcome of HE, hence the need for this s...
The need for transparency has made a beautiful mirror of a point ushered into the research plane. The issues detected were overtly accepted and are all being worked on vivaciously. The spirit of error detection in health management practice is one that usually humours the principal since all health odds go through them to get treated. However, the subordinate point has been made and the bridge is being built across the sea of impunity and workers' pride. Thanks to the approachability that is ...
Abstract Several researches have shown that the accumulation of heavy metals in green-leafy vegetables is of increasing concern due to food safety threat and potential health risks. Therefore, the aim of this research was to analyze the amount of heavy metals accumulated in three green-leafy vegetables consumed in Dutse metropolis, Jigawa state, Nigeria. Three (3) samples of each of the vegetables were collected randomly from two (2) different markets in Dutse Metropolis. The sample coll...
This is a capture of medical records documentation lapses observed over a period of at least seven years. The fact of medical diagnostics makes the paper pertinent because of the timeliness and crucial nature of the professional content of the department in question measured against the actual manifest. The economics of choice and opportunity cost however, may not rule out the power to make, create and innovate commoner ways to ensure that medical records professionalism is not compromised.
Cutaneous mycoses infections of the skin, hair, or nails are recurring presentations in the geriatric primary care setting. The most common infections are those caused by dermatophytes. The genus Trichophyton gives rise to most of the tinea dermatophytoses, including tinea capitis, tinea pedis, and tinea unguium (cutaneousmycoses). Part of the diagnostic challenge lies in distinguishing the mycotic lesions from those caused by cutaneous diseases such as psoriasis, eczema, dyshidrosis, and con...