Quality assessment of randomized control trials in dental research II. Results: Periodontal research

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Abstract
Twenty‐one reports of 14 randomized control trials (RCTs) published between 1968 and 1984 comparing methods of periodontal treatment were evaluated using a system to assess the quality of RCTs based on published reports. The quality assessment system evaluates the design, implementation, and analytic methods used. An index of quality is calculated with a maximum score attainable of 1.00. The mean quality score for these 14 RCTs was 0.35±0.07 (ISD). There was no evidence of improvement in scores over time. Ninety‐five percent of the trials used the 'split‐mouth’protocol. Although the results of 17 reports claimed no statistically significant differences between treatments, in no case was a type II error calculated to ensure that a sample size sufficient to detect a difference of clinical interest had been used. It is recommended that future RCTs of periodontal treatment utilize and report a standard design protocol so that results may be better compared and combined.