Reporting quality of case reports about dental trauma published in international journals 2008-2018 assessed by CARE...

The diagnosis and treatment of dental trauma are based primarily on observational evidence and case reports. The aim of this research is to assess the quality of reporting of case reports published from 2008 to 2018 in dental selected journals using the Care Report (CARE) guideline and to assess whether there was a change after publication of the CARE guidelines.

A descriptive study of the publications available on PubMed from specialist journals was conducted. Searches were made for MESh and free keywords associated with dental trauma and tooth injuries. One calibrated evaluator (kappa-intra = 0.87) using the CARE guidelines (max = 30 points) evaluated all case reports published from 2008 to 2018 in relevant journals. The average score before and after 2013 was compared by t-test and regression modeling, and the description of each CARE item was analyzed.

The search found 201 relevant articles published in Dent Traumatol 141 (70.1%), Eur Arch Paediatr Dent 10 (5.0%), Int J Clin Pediatr Dent 16 (8.0%), J Clin Pediatr Dent 19 (9.5%), and Pediatr Dent 15 (7.5%). The mean quality (± standard deviation) was 14.3 (±2.6), and range from 7 to 20. The number and mean (±SD) before the CARE guidelines were n = 171, mean = 14.3 (±2.6) and after the CARE guidelines were n = 30, mean = 14.7 (±2.7), (P = .39, t-test). No significant differences per journal or origin of the first author were found.

The reporting quality of case reports about dental trauma in five international dental journals has not improved since the publication of the CARE guidelines. The lack of reporting of essential items in case reports suggests that journals could enhance their quality by requiring authors to adhere to the CARE guidelines or similar reporting guidelines.