ABSTRACT
Background: School based dental screening has been a popular public health intervention. However, literature provides contrasting evidence regarding effectiveness of such programs on the utilization of dental services. Objectives: We designed this review to understand the differences in dental attendance rates of children below 15 years of age, receiving a school based dental screening versus those not receiving it. Material and Methods: The standard methodological procedures prescribed by The Cochrane Collaboration for Systematic review and meta-analysis was employed. An electronic (MEDLINE via PUBMED, Cochrane trial registry, and Google scholar) and a manual search (2016) were made to identify studies. Results: Five studies met the inclusion criteria, covering a population of 28208 school children of which 21447 were included in the meta-analysis. The review concludes that school based dental screening marginally increases the dental attendance by 16 percent as opposed to a non-screening group (RR 1.16 (95% CI 1.11, 1.21). The quality of evidence was found to be low. Conclusions: There is evidence of marginally increased dental attendance rate of 16 % following screening. As the quality of evidence was found to be low, the results of this review may be used with caution.
ABSTRACT
Objectives: To determine the association between early childhood caries and nutritionalstatus in preschool children. Methods: Cross-sectional study among preschool children(N=550, age 8-60 mo) were selected in tribal, rural and urban health care units of Kerala. Anoral examination for early childhood caries status was done using Deft index. Theanthropometric measurements were recorded. Multiple logistic regression with othercovariates was used to determine the association between the early childhood caries andnutritional status. Results: The mean (SD) Deft scores were 0.93 (1.73), 2.22 (2.92) and 3.40(3.23) for children with normal nutritional status, borderline undernutrition and undernutrition,respectively. Children with borderline undernutrition (adjusted OR 2.05, 95% CI 1.20, 3.49) orundernutrition (adjusted OR 3.46, 95% CI 1.93, 6.29) had higher odds of dental caries incomparison to those with normal nutritional status. Conclusion: Undernutrition is associatedwith early childhood caries among preschool children.
Subject(s)
Acne Vulgaris/genetics , Adult , Genes, Dominant , Hidradenitis Suppurativa/genetics , Humans , Male , Skin/pathologyABSTRACT
A 49-year-old farmer presented with papules on the face, arms, chest and back associated with sclerosis. Histopathology and PAS stain confirmed the clinical diagnosis of scleromyxedema. He also had elevated CPK levels due to myopathy. Screening for internal malignancy was negative.