Quality Assessment of Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPG) for Management of Paediatric Dental Emergencies Applicable (PDEA) during COVID-19 Pandemic
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.9734/bpi/cpms/v9/16400DKeywords:
Dentistry, health profession, emergency medicine, pediatrics, clinical practice guide, quality, guidelines, AGREE II, COVID-19Abstract
The present study evaluates the quality of Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPG) related to the management of paediatric dental emergencies applicable to the COVID-19 pandemic, through the use of the measuring instrument AGREE II (Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation in Europe).
We conducted a thorough web search of CPG among the top CPG compilers. : In addition, a thorough search was conducted among the major national and international dental organisations as well as reputable websites in order to find CPG that fulfil the inclusion criteria.
An overall Five (05) out of twenty-three (23) selected CPG, were classified as “acceptable” according to AGREE II. These five guides were evaluated to determine their “Recommendation degree”. According to the quality evaluation criteria and recommendation degree of the AGREEII instrument, only one CPG (AUGE clinical guide for ambulatory dental emergencies- Chile, 2011) was considered a “Rec-ommended” CPG, but applicable only among Spanish- speaking coun-tries. It would be advisable to work on this guide, using English as an international language.
High, middling, and low quality CPG were determined using the quality assessment and recommendation degrees criteria from AGREE II. Only one CPG had a score of 75% or above, earning the designation "highly recommended". Therefore, in order to ensure their quality, it is advised that both current and future CPG updates develop them using the available tools and procedures.