Objective To assess the effectiveness of intraarticular injection of hyaluronate (HA) on temporomandibular disorders (TMD). Methods Searching various databases available, handsearching 15 Chinese dental journals to find articles, abstracts and unpublished literature with randomized or quasi-randomized design on the effects of intraarticular injection of HA on TMD.Data extraction, appraisal, and the methods for Meta-analysis were conducted based on the Cochrane guidelines. Results 12 RCTs and 2 CCT on TMD and 1 RCT on rheumatoid arthritis involving temporomandibular joints (TMJ) were located, 10 of them fulfilled inclusion criteria in which 561 patients were reported.Except 71 cases with only qualitative data, 490 cases could be calculated in Meta-analysis: 277 on HA, 113 on placebo or non-treatment (PL) and 100 on corticosteroids (CO). In comparison with PL, HA injection showed no statistically significant effect on short and long term improvement of symptoms, and short term improvement of VAS as well. But it presented significant better effects than PL in short and long term improvement of clinical signs, especially mouth opening. When sensitivity analysis was conducted for improvement of short term signs, the conclusion was not stable. Comparison of the effect between HA and CO showed the same efficacy levels. Adverse reactions of HA were mild and transient. Conclusions HA may improve short and long term clinical signs of TMD and have only mild and transient adverse reactions. However, more RCTs are needed to confirm its therapeutic effect.
Objective To hand search all formally published articles on randomized controlled clinical trials (RCT) and controlled clinical trials (CCT) for inputting into the database of Chinese Cochrane Center (CCC) and the Central Database of Cochrane Collaboration. Method All Chinese dental journals of the mainland of China that started publication before the end of 1996 were hand searched page by page. Criteria of RCT and CCT were based on the guideline of Cochrane Oral Health Group. All included articles were copied and the titles of the articles and names of the journals were translated into English and input to Procite for submission. A senior professional monitored the process and checked the translation item by item. Results Fifteen dental journals were included. One started from 1953, six from 80s, and the rest from 90s. Ten of them were listed by Ministry of Science and Technology as part of the government database for scientific articles. From 1953 to 1990, 42 RCTs and 97 CCTs were found in 291 journal issues, from 1991-1995, 157 RCTs and 154 CCTs in 241 issues, from 1996-2000 358 RCTs and 264 CCTs in 316 issues. In the three periods, the average RCTs per journal issue were 0.14, 0.65, 1.13 respectively, the averages of CCTs per issue were 0.33, 0.64, 0.84 respectively. The ratios of RCT to CCT are 0.43, 1.02, 1.36 respectively which showed greatly increasing along with time. There are 113 articles accounting 10.54% of the total specially for testing the effect of various Chinese traditional medicines and therapies. The common problems for the searched RCTs and CCTs is small sample size, insufficient descriptions on randomization and concealment, compliance and drop outs. Some titles were improperly written such as using trade name of drugs etc. In translation into English, some words indicating category or main components of the drugs were added. Conclusions In comparison of one fourth of the world population and more than 30 thousands dental professionals of China, 557 RCTs and 515 CCTs in dental literature are quite small number but the increasing speed is encouraging. More effort should be offered to spread knowledge of evidence-based medicine (EBM) to the dental care workers of China to produce more evidences. RCTs and/or CCTs should be good tools to determining real effects of traditional Chinese medicines in dental fields to make them applicable to all.