Citation

Wallace A, Rogers HJ, Zaitoun H, Rodd HD, Gilchrist F, Marshman Z. Dent. Traumatol. 2016; 33(3): 153-159.

Affiliation

Academic Unit of Dental Public Health, School of Clinical Dentistry, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/edt.12299

PMID

27385489

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND AIM: It is widely acknowledged that children should participate in healthcare decisions, service development and even setting research agendas. Dental traumatology is a major component of paediatric dentistry practice and research. However, little is known about young patients' contribution to new knowledge in this field. The aim of the study was to establish the extent to which children are involved in contemporary dental trauma research and to evaluate the quality of the related literature. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A systematic review of the dental trauma literature was conducted from 2006-2014. The electronic databases, MEDLINE and Scopus, were used to identify relevant studies. The selected papers were independently examined by five calibrated reviewers. Studies were categorised by the degree of children's involvement and appraised using a validated quality assessment tool.

RESULTS: The initial search yielded 4,374 papers. After application of the inclusion and exclusion criteria only 96 studies remained. Research on children accounted for 87.5% of papers and a proxy was involved in 4.2%. Children were engaged to some degree in only 8.3% of studies and there were no studies where children were active research participants. In the quality assessment exercise papers scored, on average, 57% (range=14-86%).

CONCLUSION: There is scope to encourage more active participation of children in dental trauma research in the future. Furthermore, there are some areas where the quality of research could be improved overall. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Language: en