Continuing professional development of dental practitioners in Prato, Italy.

The three objectives of this study were 1) to evaluate the frequency of access to instruments of continuing education by dental practitioners belonging to the Order of Dental Practitioners of the Province of Prato, Italy; 2) to ascertain their understanding and use of evidence-based medicine; and 3) to identify their preferences for obtaining continuing education in dental therapy. Of the 177 members of this order, 123 (69 percent) responded to a telephone interview. The typical dentist of Prato reads articles in Italian journals once a week, consults colleagues once a week, reads books once a month, accesses the Internet every three months, goes to congresses or courses every six months, and does not read articles published in international journals. Forty-one percent of those interviewed did not know the meaning of the term "evidence-based medicine." Practical training was considered the most important form of update in therapy and reaches statistical significance (p<0.05) when compared to consultation with colleagues, videos, and the Internet (which received the lowest score). The conclusions were that dentists of Prato obtain continuing education episodically and in a passive way. They do not understand the concept of evidence-based medicine and often employ it superficially.

Citation classics in periodontology: a controlled study.

AIM: The aims of this study were to identify the most cited articles in Periodontology published from January 1990 to March 2005; and to analyse the differences between citation Classics and less cited articles. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The search was carried out in four international periodontal journals: Journal of Periodontology, Journal of Clinical Periodontology, International Journal of Periodontics and Restorative Dentistry and Journal of Periodontal Research. The Classics, that are articles cited at least 100 times, were identified using the Science Citation Index database. From every issue of the journals that contained a Classic, another article was randomly selected and used as a Control. RESULTS: Fifty-five Classics and 55 Controls were identified. Classic articles were longer, used more images, had more authors, and contained more self-references than Controls. Moreover Classics had on the average a bigger sample size, often dealt with etiopathogenesis and prognosis, but were rarely controlled or randomized studies. CONCLUSIONS: Classic articles play an instructive role, but are often non-Controlled studies.

Short- and long-term periodontal evaluation of impacted canines treated with a closed surgical-orthodontic approach.

AIM: The aims were to evaluate and compare the periodontal status of unilateral impacted maxillary canines treated by a combined surgical-orthodontic technique with that of normally erupted controlateral canines. MATERIAL AND METHODS: One hundred and twenty-five patients, consecutively enrolled, aged between 12.8 and 52.0 years, 31 males and 94 females, presented one impacted maxillary canine (test group) and the controlateral canine normally erupted (control group). All cases were treated by a surgical flap and orthodontic traction directed to the centre of the crest and evaluated periodontally at the end of treatment. Fifty-eight patients were followed up for a mean of 3.4 +/- 0.5 years. Pocket depth (PD), keratinized tissue width (KT) and gingival recession were recorded. Multilevel models were created. RESULTS: At the end of the orthodontic treatment, PD and KT of the 125 impacted canines were slightly, but statistically significantly higher than controls. Only one treated canine showed a recession (1 mm). At follow-up (58 patients), this difference decreased and the two groups were not significantly different. CONCLUSIONS: The combined technique permitted the traction of the impacted canines to the centre of the crest, thus simulating a physiological eruption pattern. Correct alignment and good periodontal status were obtained.