Evidence map›Paper›PMID 38699922›Full record

ArticleActa odontologica Scandinavica2024

Health complaints before and at one and five years after removal of dental amalgam restorations - data from a prospective cohort study in Norway.

Nivedita Sinha, Harald Johan Hamre, Frauke Musial, Erik L Werner, Lars Björkman

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Acta odontologica Scandinavica, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Nivedita SinhaCentre for International Health, Department of Global Public Health and Primary Care, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway.
Harald Johan HamreInstitute for Applied Epistemology and Medical Methodology, University of Witten/Herdecke, Freiburg, Germany.
Frauke MusialDepartment of Community Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, The National Research Center in Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NAFKAM), UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway.
Erik L WernerResearch Unit for General Practice, NORCE Norwegian Research Centre AS, Bergen, Norway; Department of General Practice, Institute of Health and Society, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
Lars BjörkmanDental Biomaterials Adverse Reaction Unit, NORCE Norwegian Research Centre AS, Bergen, Norway. Lars.Bjorkman@norceresearch.no.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectiveHealth complaints attributed to dental amalgam fillings comprise both intraoral and general health complaints. There are data suggesting that patients with medically unexplained physical symptoms (MUPS) attributed to amalgam fillings show improvement in symptoms after removal of all amalgam fillings. However, data indicating changes of specific health complaints are limited. This study evaluated the changes of health complaints after removal of amalgam restorations in patients with health complaints attributed to dental amalgam fillings.

methodPatients with MUPS attributed to dental amalgam (Amalgam cohort) had all their amalgam fillings removed. The participants indicated an intensity of 11 local and 12 general health complaints on numeric rating scales before the treatment and at follow-up after 1 and 5 years. The comparison groups comprising a group of healthy individuals and a group of patients with MUPS without symptom attribution to dental amalgam did not have their amalgam restorations removed.

resultsIn the Amalgam cohort, mean symptom intensity was lower for all 23 health complaints at follow-up at 1 year compared to baseline. Statistically significant changes were observed for specific health complaints with effect sizes between 0.36 and 0.68. At the 5-year follow-up, the intensity of symptoms remained consistently lower compared to before the amalgam removal. In the comparison groups, no significant changes of intensity of symptoms of health complaints were observed.

conclusionAfter removal of all amalgam restorations, both local and general health complaints were reduced. Since blinding of the treatment was not possible, specific and non-specific treatment effects cannot be separated.

Indexed as

Dental AmalgamDental Restoration, PermanentAdultCohort StudiesFemaleHumansMaleMiddle AgedNorwayProspective StudiesDental Amalgam

Identifiers

PMID38699922
PMCPMC11302653

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.