Apologies for cross posting
Hello from snowy Switzerland.
I am a practising Dentist and Master's student in Evidence based health care
at Oxford University.
As part of my thesis I am trying to design/run a Randomised controlled tial
to answer a question concerning Root Canal Therapy.
To begin with we are attempting to undertake a systematic review for the
Cochrane Collaboration. At the initial Protocoll Writing Workshop mention
was made of the problems of randomising dental studies.
In short what should the unit of randomisation be ?
Participants / Teeth / Roots / Canals
Clinically Teeth would seem to make sense because,
1.Endodontists(Root canal specialists) do not generally use different
instrument techniques for different canals in the same tooth.
2.I do believe that there is no association between teeth for example
'failing' in the same patient.
I would be interested in any comments, direction or advice .
How do other human anatomical areas 'get randomised' ? I understand that
eyes are another area where randomisation is difficult.
Many Thanks
Cheers
Patrick
Patrick Sequeira BDS(London),DMD(Berne,Zürich)
Alte Steinhauserstrasse 3
CH-6330 Cham / Zug
Switzerland
Praxis:
T: + 41(0) 41 740 12 20
F: + 41(0) 41 740 12 25
EMail:[log in to unmask]
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