In the eighth decade of the last century, about 3.5% of Dutch men and about 6% of Dutch women reported temporomandibular disorders. In 5% of the Dutch population temporomandibular disorders were diagnosed. It is unknown how many persons are seeking treatment for temporomandibular complaints. The aim of the present study was determining for how many persons and at which age of these persons treatments of temporomandibular disorders in general practices were reimbursed by an insurance company. On the basis of the yearly number of reimbursements by this insurance company, the yearly number of treatments of the Dutch population as a whole was estimated. The estimation was 0.87 treatments per 1.000 inhabitants, which figure was substantial lower as could be expected on the basis of the outcome of epidemiologic research projects.Within the limitations of this explorative study, a careful conclusion could be that only few treatments for temporomandibular disorders are charged by general practitioners. Probably, they are focussing on consultation and diagnosing, and not on treating the disease themselves.

Nowadays, dentists are expected to base their treatment decisions on the strongest available evidence. This so-called evidence-based approach has four steps: the formulation of a clinical problem, the search for evidence, the evaluation of the evidence, and the treatment of the patient. As part of this approach, the strongest evidence comes from systematic reviews, which are free of any author-related bias. Since working according to the principles of evidence-based dentistry is time consuming, dental schools should assist general practitioners through producing sufficient numbers of high-quality systematic reviews. The ever-increasing emancipation of patients stresses the need of adopting the principles of evidence-based dentistry. ‘Think twice’ should be the motto.

In the editorial of an issue of The Angle Orthodontist, entitled ‘The state of our specialty’, the editor-in-chief, Sheldon Peck, describes some tendencies in modern orthodontics. He depicts some aspects which he sees as threatening for orthodontics. Certain present attitudes and situations are not only considered to damage the reputation of the orthodontic specialty, but also of the orthodontist and of the orthodontic specialty education. Peck is warning for the consequences and risks of commercialisation in orthodontics as well as for the poor level of the evidence based clinical practice in orthodontics.A number of his grieves specifically apply to the United States, others can be recognized in the European context too.

Full version in English on the Dutch site.

After seeing a child with dental erosion in a pediatric dental clinic the fondness and use of sweets were asked.With a questionnaire it became clear that recently various candy sprays and gels are available to keep a sweet and fresh taste in the mouth at school. The buffer capacity of a number of sprays and gels were determined and they were tested in the mouth. The taste determines the increase in salivary flow rate. The effects of a taste stimulus on increasing the flow rate and decreasing the pH disappear within 2 until 3 minutes. Concluding: the Candy sprays and particularly the Juicy Drop Pop belong, from the dental point of view, to children sweets with high risk for dental caries and erosion. The use of these fluid sweets has to be reduced as much as possible.

A case report is presented of a 14-year-old girl with a buccoapical fistula of tooth 22. The radiograph of the tooth revealed a periapical radiolucency and two roots. Endodontic treatment was conducted, followed by normal healing of the periapical area. Root division and additional roots of maxillary lateral incisors are rare phenomena.

As a first step to develop a national electronic health record, the department of Healthcare, Welfare and Sports did announce the coordination of local health networks that take initiatives in developing an electronic patient medication record.