[Comparison of salivary cotinine concentration in cigarette smokers, water pipe smokers and non smokers]

Water pipe smoking has become a public health hazard. The aim of this study was to measure and compare the concentration of salivary cotinine in cigarette smokers, water pipe smokers and nonsmokers. Forty-eight volunteers [16 cigarette smokers, 16 water pipe smokers and 16 nonsmokers] participated in this cross-sectional study. High sensitivity Salivary Cotinine Quantitative enzyme immunoassay kit was used to measure the salivary cotinine concentration. Non-parametric Kruskal Wallis test, Pearson's correlation coefficient and linear regression were used to determine the correlation between number of cigarettes smoked and concentration of cotinine. The mean concentration of salivary cotinine was 223.74[ +/- 181.56] ng/ml [the highest] in cigarette smokers, 106.24 [ +/- 135.23] ng/ml in water pipe smokers and 0.73[ +/- 1.24] ng/ml in nonsmokers. The difference in this respect among the 3 groups was statistically significant [P<0.0001]. In smokers, the level of salivary cotinine increased by 1.84 ng/ml per each time of cigarette smoking per week. This increase was 14.57 ng/ml per each time of water pipe consumption per week. The mean concentration of salivary cotinine was significantly higher among cigarette smokers compared to water pipe smokers and nonsmokers. However, one time consumption of water pipe caused a greater rise in salivary cotinine level compared to cigarette smoking

[ evaluation on the knowledge and attitudes toward root canal therapy among patients referred to the department of endodontics]

Aim and Background: Having knowledge about dental pulp tissue and its treatment along with the patient's attitudes toward the mentioned treatments are of high importance, not only for the practitioner but also for the patient

Methods and Materials: the present research is a cross - sectional and descriptive study, conducted in Gilan dental faculty, from March of June 2003. A questionnaire was completed by the patients about the demographic information and their knowledge and attitude son root canal therapies. All the questions were confirmed by endodontics professors consisting of 15 questions on the level of knowledge and 6 remaining ones on the patients' attitudes. After the experimental stage, the sample size, at 95% confidence coefficient, was determined as 111. The data were analyzed by SPSS software and regression test

Results: the results showed that 8.1% of the patients had a very weak knowledge, 27.9% had a weak knowledge where as the knowledge of the 45%, 16.2% and 2.7% of the patients were average, good and excellent, respectively. Considering attitude, 69.496, 28.8% and 1.8% of the patients showed positive, negative and indifferent attitudes, respectively

Conclusion: it is suggested that, prior to the initiation of the treatment, a pamphlet on the basic information about root canal therapy should be provided for each patient