A top ten for dental research publications

It's the season of awards in the film and music industry and, while dental practices also compete for prizes based on criteria which certainly do involve the long-term survival of restorations, it will not surprise readers to hear that there are no such awards for dental research publications. However, it is interesting to note that the Journal of Dental Research has published its own top ten, namely, the most-read articles of 2014 (assessed by number of downloads). While some articles may not appear to be of immediate relevance (at least at the present time) to everyday dental practice, such as a paper on bone morphogenetic proteins and selective serotin re-uptake inhibitors, some of the highly rated articles make relevant reading to contemporary dental practice. I have chosen my top three.

Of everyday relevance and well worth a read is the review by Setzer and Kim comparing long-term survival of implants and endodontically treated teeth,¹ a topic which is increasing in relevance alongside the seemingly unstoppable increase in courses on implant placement. The authors demonstrate poorer success rates of implants placed by inexperienced operators than by implant ‘specialists’, surly an indictment of the implant one-day course, but conclude that implants and restoration of endodontically treated teeth demonstrated significant outcome rates if the treatments are appropriately chosen and rendered. They add a great line – ‘that there is no lifetime guarantee for either a natural tooth or an implant’. Accordingly, they concluded that, as a missing tooth is irreversibly gone, a tooth should only be removed after suitable deliberation.