title: Quantity and quality assessment of randomized controlled trials on orthodontic practice in PubMed.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To find current high-quality evidence for orthodontic practice within a reasonable time, we tested the performance of a PubMed search.
  
  
  METHODS
  PubMed was searched using publication type randomized controlled trial and medical subject heading term "orthodontics" for articles published between 2003 and 2007. The PubMed search results were compared with those from a hand search of four orthodontic journals to determine the sensitivity of PubMed search. We evaluated the precision of the PubMed search result and assessed the quality of individual randomized controlled trials using the Jadad scale.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Sensitivity and precision were 97.46% and 58.12%, respectively. In PubMed, of the 277 articles retrieved, 161 (58.12%) were randomized controlled trials on orthodontic practice, and 115 of the 161 articles (71.42%) were published in four orthodontic journals: American Journal of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics, The Angle Orthodontist, the European Journal of Orthodontics, and the Journal of Orthodontics. Assessment by the Jadad scale revealed 60 high-quality randomized controlled trials on orthodontic practice, of which 45 (75%) were published in these four journals.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  PubMed is a highly desirable search engine for evidence-based orthodontic practice. To stay current and get high-quality evidence, it is reasonable to look through four orthodontic journals: American Journal of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics, The Angle Orthodontist, the European Journal of Orthodontics, and the Journal of Orthodontics.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthodontics, Tsurumi University, Yokohama, Japan. shimada-t@tsurumi-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Tatsuo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shimada
authors.forename: Hisako
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Takayama
authors.forename: Yoshiki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nakamura
mesh_terms: D055094:Evidence-Based Dentistry; D006801:Humans; D055811:Journal Impact Factor; D009970:Orthodontics / Q000592:standards*; D039781:PubMed; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic / Q000592:standards*; D012107:Research Design / Q000592:standards; D057386:Search Engine