comparative study of oral health parameters in molar incisor hypomineralization and high-caries-risk children aged 8-11 years

Objective: To compare oral health parameters: decayed missing filled teeth [dmft, DMFT], gingival index and plaque index in high-caries-risk children and children with molar incisor hypomineralization [MIH]

Subjects and Methods: A study group of 81 children affected by MIH [49 girls, 32 boys] aged 8-11 years [mean 9.4 +/- 1.1] was race-, age- and sex-matched with 81 high-caries-risk children not affected by MIH [controls]. The MIH and control groups were divided into four subgroups according to age. The oral health parameters of both groups were recorded under clinical conditions. Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to compare the differences in the number of MIH-affected teeth between the groups. Other traits were evaluated with the ANOVA test, and Duncan's multiple comparison tests were used for comparing means. Linear and ordinal regression analyses were used to model the variables

Results: The mean age of the participants was 9.4 +/- 1.1 years, and the mean number of affected teeth was 7.7 [range 3-12] in the MIH group. The number of affected teeth and severity of MIH did not change significantly with age and sex [p > 0.05]. A comparison of the oral health parameters of MIH-affected and control children according to groups did not show any statistically significant differences between the groups for all parameters for all groups [p > 0.05] with the exception of DMFT values at 10 years of age [p < 0.05]. In a comparison of the total scores without taking age into account, the children with MIH showed a significantly higher DMFT value than the children without MIH [p < 0.05], but there were no significant differences between the dmft, GI and PI values of the study groups [p > 0.05]

Conclusion: The children in the MIH group had higher DMFT than those without MIH. Hence, the presence of MIH could have a detrimental effect on oral health parameters, especially on DMFT values

Direct and transdentinal [indirect] antibacterial activity of commercially available dental gel formulations against Streptococcus mutans

To evaluate the direct and transdentinal [indirect] agar diffusion antibacterial activity of different commercially available antibacterial dental gel formulations against Streptococcus mutans. The commercially available dental gel formulations were Corsodyl[R] [COG, 1% chlorhexidine], Cervitec[R] [CEG, 0.2% chlorhexidine + 0.2% sodium fluoride], Forever Bright[R] [FOB, aloe vera], Gengigel[R] [GEG, 0.2% hyaluronic acid], 35% phosphoric acid gel and distilled water [control]. Direct agar diffusion was performed by isolating three wells from brain-heart infusion agar plates using sterile glass pipettes attached to a vacuum pump and adding 0.1 ml of the gels to each well. Transdentinal [indirect] agar diffusion was performed by applying gel to 0.2- and 0.5-mm-thick human dentin discs previously etched with phosphoric acid and rinsed with distilled water. Zones formed around the wells and the dentin discs were measured and analyzed using Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U tests with Bonferroni correction [p < 0.01]. Direct agar diffusion tests showed significant differences among all gel formulations [p < 0.01] except for COG and CEG [p > 0.01]. COG and CEG exhibited higher antibacterial effects compared to FOB and GEG [p < 0.01] in both direct and transdentinal [indirect] testing procedures. GEG did not show any antimicrobial activity in transdentinal [indirect] testing. Commercially available dental gels inhibited S. mutans, which may indicate their potential as cavity disinfectants