Research Reports first published in the journal Tuith Online

Study of primary care dentistry ERUPTs into life

Stephen Turner, a Senior Researcher at the Dental Health Services Research Unit in Dundee, describes progress (up until the end of September 2003) on a new project concerned with ways of encouraging the adoption of good evidence-based practice in the management of children's dental health in Scotland.

A major national study, funded by the Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Executive and the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council has burst into activity over the summer months, recruiting 150 dentists working with children in poorer areas of Scotland and mounting a series of workshops around the country. The aptly named ERUPT study - short for Evidence from Research Used in Preventive Treatment - is designed to investigate ways of improving dental health of children most at risk. Currently the poorest 10% of children have at least 50% of the decay, and there is no strong evidence on how changes to the organisation of primary dental care services might bring about improvement. The ERUPT study will compare two different ways of encouraging evidence-based practice in the dental care of children of secondary school age. SSPC are actively involved in the study, as are the Universities of Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, St Andrews, and Aberdeen.

One unique feature of the study is its links with Practitioner Services Division (PSD) of the NHS Scotland's Common Services Agency. PSD facilities have been used to identify the target group of dentists to be recruited to the study, and will provide anonymised information on treatments given to children over the life of the study.

Response to the invitations to take part in the study, which went out in June, has been tremendous, and by August the target of 150 dentists had been achieved. This represents a response rate of 53% - very high for studies of this size and duration. Dentists from all over the country have responded, and 55 attended workshops in September entitled "Making Evidence Work for You". One novel feature of the workshops was an on-line session where dentists were able to search the World Wide Web for sources of reliable evidence on common clinical problems. For many this was the first time they had accessed resources such as Medline or the Cochrane Library.

The study is now entering a phase of monitoring treatments offered to children by the study dentists, before ERUPTing into life again next year, when the next phase of accessing the study interventions will take place.