To the Editor,
This letter is related to the article “No evidence on the effectiveness of oral splints for the management of temporomandibular joint dysfunction pain in both short and long-term follow-up systematic reviews and meta-analysis studies”, by Fouda1, published in the issue of April 2020 of the Journal of the Korean Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons. Initially, we congratulate the author and the journal for the publication.
The theme of the referred study awaked our deepest interest in reading. However, caught our attention by the fact that a systematic review was carried out by only one author, since the participation of another person(s) in the development of the study was not reported in the structure of the article. Was there any specific reason for such a choice? Still on the composition of a team for the preparation of a systematic review, the Cochrane Collaboration, for example, addresses the broad defense that exists about the need for at least two people to work independently, both in the selection of studies observing the eligibility criteria, as well as data extraction from selected studies2. Regarding the selection of studies, the lists of included studies prepared by the two reviewers are then compared and the differences resolved, either through discussion or involving a third researcher3.
It is also worth mentioning that, for the preparation of a systematic review, the construction of a research question is oriented, encompassing four items represented by the acronym PICO (Population, Interventions, Comparators, Outcomes)2. According to PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses), this question it must be presented explicitly in the introduction of the systematic review4.
Another fact that caught our attention was a study5 classified as of intermediate follow-up period (three months), included in the meta-analysis as a long-term evaluation (six months or one year). Was there any reason for this option?
Footnotes
Authors’ Contributions
M.S.C.C. participated in writing – original draft preparation. S.M.S.C., N.R.F., L.B.G., C.S.F., and A.L.P.F.A. participated in writing – review and editing. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Conflict of Interest
No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported.
References
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