Herbal oral care: an old concept or a new model.

dental health. The commonly used Ayurvedic medications for oral and dental health can be classified based on their properties as PLANTS WITH ANTIMICROBIAL PROPERTY Aloe, betel pepper (Piper betel), black pepper (Piper nigrum), clove (Syzygium aromaticum), coriander, (Coriandrum sativum), eucalyptus (Eucalyptus globules), garlic (Allium sativum), turmeric (Curcuma longa), green tea (Camellia sinensis), Onion (Allium cepa), papaya (Carica papaya), potato (Solanum tuberosum) are few Indian plants species which contain antimicrobial activities.3 PLANTS WITH ANTIOXIDANT PROPERTY Spinach, pepper, black tea, broccoli, green tea, carrot, potato tomato, blackberry, grape, olive, pineapple, ABSTRACT Ayurveda, the oldest medical science originating from Indian subcontinent, has been practiced since the 12th century BC. Its objective is to accomplish physical, mental, social and spiritual well- being by adopting preventive, health promoting and holistic approach towards life. Ayurveda is the science that developed as humans evolved and has stood the test of time. Oral diseases are major health problems worldwide and are not limited to dental caries and periodontal diseases but to various autoimmune conditions. Oral health influences the general quality of life and poor oral health is linked to chronic conditions and systemic diseases. Recently there is renewed interest in use of various Ayurvedic drugs for oral and dental healthyurvedic drugs for oral and dental health.

Impact of lifestyle diseases on oral health.

The lifestyle of an individual has varied implications in his/her overall health. Lifestyle diseases caused bysmoking and use of smokeless tobacco, alcohol consumption, poor nutrition, and obesity and stress contribute to the leading causes of preventable death. Of the lifestyle factors certain behaviors and practices such as poor eating habits, inactivity, use of tobacco and alcohol form the preventable factors and ethnicity, age, gender, heredity form the non-preventable factors contributing to lifestyle diseases. This review discusses the lifestyle practices that have a profound impact on the oral health and the various modifications in lifestyle that can prevent them.

How different are students and their learning styles.

Introduction: Students, like anybody else differ from each other. As students they differ in their preferred mode of learning, i.e. their preferred modes in gathering, organizing and thinking about information. A recent classification proposed by Neil Fleming and associates state that students learning styles can be divided into Visual/graphic, Aural, Read/write and Kinesthetic types, VARK. Aim: The aim of the recent study is to investigate learning styles among dental students in two different dental colleges of India. Method: The VARK-questionnaire contains 15 multiple-choice- questions with four possibilities to select an answer. Each possibility represents one of the four modes of perception. But, one can select more than one answer to each question, which is necessary for the identification of poly modal modes of perception and learning. This is also a psychometric problem when trying to state a measure of the reliability of the questionnaire. The VARK-questionnaire was distributed among 200 students and was collected back. This sample size represents 100% response rate from the students in the class and is markedly above the level required to make conclusions about student preferences for receiving and processing information. The students spent about 10 minutes in an ordinary lesson to fill in the questionnaire. Students register number and name were used in the study and there was no blinding practiced. Study Design: Questionnaire based clinical study Results: The responses from the students in our University where classified into multi-modal (VARK), tri-modal (VRK, VAK, VAR, ARK), bi-modal (VR, VA, VK, RK) and uni-modal (V, A, R.K) categories. Results showed that subjects had a higher preference for multimodal learning. Conclusion: We conclude that students in our set up prefer multimodal and more of Kinesthetic of learning. To meet their needs, a variation in teaching, learning and examination must be implemented. If not, these students with a high kinesthetic preference for perception and learning may be at the losing end.

A review of odontogenic keratocyst with a report of unusual occurrence in the maxilla.

Odontogenic keratocysts (OKC) are keratinizing epithelium-lined cycts of the jaws with well-defined histologic criteria and possessing one clinical feature warranting their recognition and separation as a distinctive entity, due to their exceedingly high recurrence rate. This report describes a case of OKC which occurred in the anterior maxilla in a 12 year old female child, with its treatment. These lesions are normally seen in the mandible, and are rare in the maxilla.