부산대학교 도서관

Summary: Industry-sponsorship can impact on the validity of clinical trials. Sponsored trials can differ from nonsponsored trials regarding trial design, findings and reporting, favoring the sponsored products. The effects of industry-sponsorship can also be found for clinical trials in dentistry. For trials investigating the caries preventive effectiveness of fluoride gels or varnishes, an impact of sponsorship on trial findings and year of publication seems possible: Older trials, which found a high effectiveness of fluoride, were often sponsored, whereas more recent trials which found a lower effectiveness, were not sponsored. Trials on newly developed and marketed fluo - ride-free caries-preventive agents might also be prone to sponsorship bias. Dentists and consumers should critically evaluate presumably evidence-based claims before using specific products in their daily practice.