ABSTRACT
Abuse of tobacco, such as drug and alcohol abuse, is a worldwide public health problem. Once a person is addicted to nicotine, quitting smoking is difficult. A measure of the addictive potential of tobacco products is the amount of nicotine available from them. The present study is an attempt to assess the nicotine content of tobacco products available in Bhopal. Aims: This study aims to assess the nicotine content of some popular brands of smoked (cigarettes and bidis) and chewed forms (pan masalas containing tobacco) of tobacco available in Bhopal. Settings and Design: This was an in vitro cross-sectional study. Subjects and Methods: Six brands of cigarettes (filtered), six brands of bidis, and six brands of chewed tobacco (pan masalas) were used for the study. The methodology published by Association of Official Analytical Chemists was followed, and reagents conforming to American Chemical Society specifications were used. Statistical Analysis Used: One-way ANOVA, Bonferroni post hoc test. Results: The mean nicotine levels for cigarettes, bidis, and chewed tobacco were 7.84 ± 5.10, 16.86 ± 5.66, and 16.30 ± 3.33, respectively. The differences in the mean scores were compared using one-way ANOVA and were found to be statistically significant with F = 6.636 and P = 0.009. Bonferroni post hoc test assessed the difference in mean nicotine content among the groups indicating that the difference between cigarettes versus bidis and cigarette versus chewed tobacco was significant with P = 0.016 and 0.024, respectively. Conclusions: Bidis had the highest content of nicotine, followed by chewed tobacco (pan masalas) and cigarettes.
ABSTRACT
Introduction: The internet, one of the important scientific developments in this field, provides a wealth of information in relation to diseases, therapeutic procedures and pharmaceutical products. It has a lower cost as compared to paper based dissemination of information and also has an added advantage of being available worldwide instantly on demand. Therefore, there is a need not only to equip Dental fraternity with adequate skills for use of internet but also to make internet facility available in institutions providing Dental education and healthcare. Aim: The aim of this study is to find out the use of computers and internet and the purpose of using the internet among undergraduate and postgraduate dental students and faculty members compare male to female ratio of using internet. Materials and Methods: Internet addiction questionnaire consisting of 20 questions were distributed among the Dental Undergraduate and postgraduate students and faculty members. No specific sampling technique was employed for selecting the study subjects. Data was analyzed using EpiInfo. Chi-square test was used to find out statistical significance of differences in proportions. A p-value of <0.05 was considered to be significant. Results: As per the results the male dental students uses internet more than female dental students doing extracurricular activities besides educational work. The productivity and work performance of male dental students suffer more than female students due to prolonged internet use. Male dental students also hide their online time and become more defensive and secretive when someone bothers them online. So almost 50 % are at the verge of internet addiction and they have to be monitored properly.
ABSTRACT
Aims and objectives: The aim and objectives of the study was to assess awareness of effects of tobacco on oral health, general health and oral cancer in routine dental practice and to assess awareness of effects of tobacco among smokers and smokeless tobacco users. Materials and methods:-A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect information from 200 outpatients attending the department of Oral Medicine and Radiology, Peoples Dental Academy and Hospital, Bhopal, India with present or past history of smokeless or smoking form of tobacco. The questionnaire was divided into four parts demographic data, habits, awareness and practice of mouth self-examination. Data was analyzed using Chi-squared (χ2) test. Results: In our study majority of the patients were male 131(65.5%%), 35-60 years old (60%) with higher education level (38%). This implies that adult males were more common users of tobacco though being well educated. Smoking and smokeless form usage was found to be 66% & 34% with 89% as current users and more than 5 intakes /day (61%) as the most common frequency of usage. Only 11% of patients were past users and aware about ill-effects of tobacco. Television and radio followed by the news paper are the most effective means of approaching people for creating awareness on tobacco health effects among large mass population. The association between the response given for ‘smoking form can cause mouth cancer’, ‘can smoking cause heart, lung disease’ and the use of different forms of tobacco was found to be statistically significant in the study sample (P<0.05). In our study, out of 200 subjects, 84% patients never practiced mouth self-examination and remaining 16 % had noticed only stains or debris on their teeth.
ABSTRACT
Vitiligo is a depigmenting disorder resulting from the loss of melanocytes in the skin and affects 1-4% of the world population. Incidence of vitiligo is found to be 0.5-2.5% in India with a high prevalence of 8.8% in Gujarat and Rajasthan states. The cellular and molecular mechanisms that lead to melanocyte destruction in this disorder are not yet been fully elucidated. Genetic factors, neural factors, toxic ROS metabolites, autoantibodies and autoreactive T lymphocytes may be the causative agents for the selective destruction of melanocytes. Three major hypotheses of pathogenesis of vitiligo are neural, autoimmune and oxidative stress hypotheses, however none of them explains the pathogenesis of vitiligo in toto. Genetics of vitiligo is characterized by incomplete penetrance, multiple susceptibility loci and genetic heterogeneity. Recent advances in this field are linkage and association of candidate gene studies. The linkage and association studies provide a strong evidence for the presence of multiple vitiligo susceptibility genes on different chromosomes. Several candidate genes for vitiligo are identified from different populations. In this review, we have provide an overview of different hypotheses of vitiligo pathogenesis, and discuss the recent advances in this field with special reference to linkage, association and candidate gene approach.