[Evidence-based quality assessment of 10-year orthodontic clinical trials in 4 major dental journals]

To assess the quality of orthodontic clinical trials published in 4 major dental journals in the past 10 years and establish the reference standard for orthodontic clinical trials and quality control of dental journals.

All the clinical trials published in Chinese Journal of Stomatology, West China Journal of Stomatology, Journal of Practice Stomatology and Chinese Journal of Orthodontics from 1999 to 2008 were searched. The demographic information of the papers was extracted and the quality of the clinical trials according to the consolidated standards of reporting trials (CONSORT) was assessed.

Four hundred and ninety-four clinical trials were retrieved, and 21.3% (105/494) of them were supported by grants. For the study design, only 26.1% (129/494) were prospective studies, and 3.8% (19/494) were randomized clinical trials. It was hard to evaluate precisely due to the lack of information about the details of the study designs. For the randomized clinical trials, the lack of details for randomization, allocation concealment, blinding and intention to treat compromised the quality.

The general quality of clinical trials in orthodontics is poor. It needs to be improved both in the clinical study design and the paper writing.