Interventions for replacing missing teeth: hyperbaric oxygen therapy for irradiated patients who require dental implants (Cochrane Review)

A substantive amendment to this systematic review was last made on 17 May 2002. Cochrane reviews are regularly checked and updated if necessary.

Background: Dental implants offer one way to replace missing teeth and associated tissues. Patients who have undergone radiotherapy and those that have also undergone surgery for cancer may benefit particularly from reconstruction with implants. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBO) has been advocated to improve the success of implant treatment in patients who have undergone radiotherapy but this remains a controversial issue.

Objectives: This review aims to compare success, morbidity, patient satisfaction and cost effectiveness of dental implant treatment carried out with and without HBO in irradiated patients.

Search strategy: The Cochrane Oral Health Group Specialised Register, the Cochrane Controlled Trials Register, MEDLINE and EMBASE were searched. In addition, the bibliographies of review articles were checked for studies outside the handsearched journals and personal references were searched. We also wrote to implant manufacturers and experts in the field.

Selection criteria: Randomised controlled trials of HBO therapy for irradiated patients requiring dental implants.

Data collection and analysis: No randomised trials were identified.

Main results: No data were available.

Reviewers' conclusions: Clinicians ought to make patients aware of the lack of reliable clinical evidence for or against the clinical effectivness of HBO in irradiated patients requiring dental implants.There is a definite need for RCTs to ascertain the effectivness of HBO in irradiated patients requiring dental implants. These trials ought to be of a high quality and reported as recommended by the CONSORT statement (http://www.consort-statement.org/). Each clinical centre may have limited numbers of patients and it is likely that trials will need to be multi-centred.

Citation: Coulthard P, Esposito M, Worthington HV, Jokstad A. Interventions for replacing missing teeth: hyperbaric oxygen therapy for irradiated patients who require dental implants (Cochrane Review). In: The Cochrane Library, Issue 3, 2003. Oxford: Update Software.

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This is an abstract of a regularly updated, systematic review prepared and maintained by the Cochrane Collaboration. The full text of the review is available in The Cochrane Library (ISSN 1464-780X).

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