Are health professionals' perceptions of patient safety related to figures on safety incidents?

Objective: The study aims to explore whether health care professionals' perceptions of patient safety in their practice were associated with the number of patient safety incidents identified in patient records.

Setting: Seventy primary care practices of general practice, general dental practice, midwifery practices and allied health care practices were used in the study.

Methods: A retrospective audit of 50 patient records was performed to identify patient safety incidents in each of the practices and a survey among health professionals to identify their perceptions of patient safety.

Effectiveness of clinical practice guideline implementation on lower third molar management in improving clinical decision-making: a randomized controlled trial.

The objective of this study was twofold, namely to evaluate the effectiveness of a dental clinical practice guideline on the management of asymptomatic impacted lower third molars (i) on referral rates and (ii) on dentists' change in knowledge. A two-arm cluster randomized controlled trial, with pre- and post-test assessments, was conducted. A guideline was implemented by multifaceted interventions (i.

Insufficient evidence to support or refute the need for 6-monthly dental check-ups. What is the optimal recall frequency between dental checks?

Data Sources: Trials were sourced using the Cochrane Oral Health Group Trials Register, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Medline and Embase. Reference lists from relevant articles were scanned and the authors of some papers were contacted to identify further trials and obtain additional information.

Study Selection: Trials were selected if they met the following criteria:design: random allocation of participants;participants: all children and adults receiving dental check-ups in primary-care settings, irrespective of their level of risk for oral disease;interventions: recall intervals for either clinical examination only, clinical examination plus scale and polish, clinical examination plus preventive advice, clinical examination plus scale and polish plus preventive advice, no recall interval/patient-driven attendance (which may be symptomatic), or clinician risk-based recall intervals;outcomes: clinical status outcomes for dental caries including, but not limited to, mean dmft/DMFT, dmfs/DMFS scores, caries increment, filled teeth (including replacement restorations), early carious lesions (arrested or reversed); periodontal disease (including, but not limited to, plaque, calculus, gingivitis, periodontitis, change in probing depth, and attachment level); oral mucosa (presence or absence of mucosal lesions, potentially malignant lesions, cancerous lesions, and size and stage of cancerous lesions at diagnosis).

Development of clinical practice guidelines: evaluation of 2 methods.

The aim of this study was to compare 2 methods for developing a clinical practice guideline (CPG) on the management of asymptomatic, impacted mandibular third molars. Outcome measures were the mean time invested by the participants for each method, the quality of the CPGs measured using the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation (AGREE) indicator and observations of the group discussions. We used a national consensus procedure following the Rand modified Delphi procedure (2 panels) and a local consensus procedure (2 existing dental peer groups).

The influence of providing a clinical practice guideline on dental students' decision making.

The aim of this study was to assess the effect of the provision of a clinical practice guideline (CPG) on dental students' decisions to remove asymptomatic, impacted lower third molars. All dental students, who in 2001 were in the 3rd, 4th or 5th (final) year of their study at the Nijmegen College of Dental Sciences, were invited to participate. A pre-test-post-test control group design was used.

Development of clinical practice guidelines for dentists: methods for topic selection.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to compare four methods for assessing the preferences of the dental profession for topics to be considered for the development of clinical practice guidelines.

Methods: The methods were: (1) a survey among dentists, (2) an analysis of topics discussed in dental peer groups, and (3) screening of dental journals. A fourth method was obtained from method number 3.

Effect of selected literature on dentists' decisions to remove asymptomatic, impacted lower third molars.

The aim of this study was to assess the effect of studying selected literature on dentists' decisions to remove asymptomatic, impacted lower third molars. A pre-test-post-test control group design was used. Given 36 patient cases, two groups of 16 general dental practitioners each were asked to assess the need for removal of asymptomatic impacted lower third molars.