A Systematic Review of Swedish Research in Orthodontics during the Past Decade.

• The aims of this systematic review were to identify the study designs and topics of Swedish orthodontic articles, to elucidate their interna-tional position, and to verify in which scientific journals the articles had been published in the past decade. A search of the Medline data-base for papers published between 1992 and 2002 was made using the Medical Search Heading terms 'orthodontics', 'malocclusion', 'cepha-lometry', and 'facial bones and growth'. Two independent reviewers selected the articles of Swedish origin and categorized each article ac-cording to research design and principal topic. Overall, 15,571 articles in orthodontic research were found, and the Swedish contribution was 1.9% with the majority of these (71.5%) being submitted by universi-ties. Most of the Swedish articles (84.5%) had been published in 10 journals and many high-quality studies with orthodontic interest were published in non-orthodontic journals with higher impact factor scores than the orthodontic journals. Every second study was prospec-tive, and of these, 15 (5.2% of all Swedish articles) were randomized clinical trials (RCTs). It was found that nearly every third study, pro-spective as well as retrospective, was uncontrolled. The main classifi-cation was treatment studies (51.9%), followed by development (18.6%) and diagnostic information (10.7%) studies. Thus, the major-ity of the articles evaluated therapeutic interventions; however, al-though the RCT is the preferred study design in evaluation studies, few used this method. In an era focused on evidence-based medicine, studies with an RCT design will be the future challenge for research in the field of orthodontics.

Subject headings

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Klinisk medicin -- Odontologi (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Clinical Medicine -- Dentistry (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Evidence-based Medicine

Information Science

Medical Informatics

Study Design

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

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