Prevalence of Developmental Dental Anomalies Using Digital Panoramic Radiographs in Libyan Dental Patients

ABSTRACT@#Dental anomalies may occur due to the complex interactions among genetic, epigenetic, and environmental factors during dental development. The current study aimed to determine the prevalence and gender significance of developmental dental anomalies (DDA) in dental patients. This was a cross-sectional study of 260 subjects (123 males and 137 females) with an age range of 6–35 years old. Clinical and radiographic examinations were performed to determine the prevalence of anomalies in tooth number, shape, size, position, and structure. Descriptive statistics was performed, the chi-square test was used for analysis and p-value was set at 0.05. The findings showed that 203 subjects (78.1%) had DDA, which included 86 males (33.1%) and 117 females (45%). A significant gender difference was found regarding the prevalence of two anomalies (p < 0.05). The most prevalent anomaly was displacement 51.2%, followed by dilaceration 24.2%. A significant gender difference (p < 0.05) was found regarding hypodontia 16.5% and impaction 14.6%, with more predominant in females. Some anomalies were not observed such as microdontia, dentin dysplasia, ectopic eruption, gemination, and taurodontism. The study concluded that displacement and dilacerations were the common abnormalities. These findings may lead to various dental complications. Therefore, early diagnosis and follow-up observation are required to reduce the potential dental problems. In addition, it is helpful to increase the knowledge of practitioners with regards to DDA and its occurrence. Furthermore, it is good to highlight the importance of early diagnosis of DDA, especially in the mixed dentition, which can lead to reducing the complication of an orthodontic treatment plan.

Assessing Knowledge, Practices, Use and Raising Awareness of Antibiotic And Antibiotic Resistance Among Dental Patients Before and After Educational Sessions / Avaliação de conhecimentos, práticas, uso e conscientização sobre antibióticos e resistência a antibióticos entre pacientes odontológicos antes e depois das sessões educacionais

Objectives: Education and awareness-raising are global health policy tools to modify public behavior towards antibiotic resistance. Considering the high frequency of antibiotic use and self-medication in Egypt, together with the lack of an awareness agenda, our objectives were to assess the knowledge and practices related to antibiotic use and resistance among patients attending dental clinics, and to evaluate the changes in knowledge following a specially designed one-on-one educational session. Material and Methods: A convenience sample of 310 dental patients participated in this study. A modified questionnaire was used to assess knowledge and practices related to antibiotic use and resistance. Second-year dental students were trained to administer the questionnaire and to use the educational materials they designed to raise awareness. Following the education session, patients completed another similar questionnaire to assess the changes in their knowledge. Results: Increasing awareness of antibiotic resistance can be an effective way to address the antibiotic resistance crisis. More than half of the participants (55.6%) did not know whether antibiotics treat diseases caused by bacterial or viral infections. The majority of participants (85.5%) had taken antibiotics during the last year, and (50.5%) of them had taken the same antibiotic more than once. Higher educational levels of the participants were significantly associated with a higher level of knowledge. Statistically significant increase in the percentages of correct answers to all questions were observed after the educational sessions. Conclusion: The one-on-one educational session is an effective approach to address the antibiotic resistance crisis (AU)

Objetivos: Educação e conscientização são ferramentas de política de saúde global para modificar o comportamento do público em relação à resistência aos antibióticos. Considerando a alta frequência de uso de antibióticos e automedicação no Egito, juntamente com a falta de uma agenda de conscientização, nossos objetivos foram avaliar o conhecimento e as práticas relacionadas ao uso de antibióticos e resistência entre pacientes atendidos em clínicas odontológicas, e avaliar as mudanças em conhecimento após uma sessão educacional especialmente projetada para este assunto. Material e Métodos: Uma amostra de 310 pacientes odontológicos participou deste estudo. Um questionário modificado foi usado para avaliar o conhecimento e as práticas relacionadas ao uso e resistência a antibióticos. Os alunos do segundo ano do curso de odontologia foram treinados para aplicar o questionário e usar os materiais educacionais que elaboraram para aumentar a conscientização. Após a sessão educacional, os pacientes responderam a outro questionário semelhante para avaliar as mudanças em seus conhecimentos. Resultados: Aumentar a conscientização sobre a resistência aos antibióticos pode ser uma forma eficaz de lidar com a crise de resistência aos antibióticos. Mais da metade dos participantes (55,6%) não sabia se os antibióticos tratam doenças causadas por infecções bacterianas ou virais. A maioria dos participantes (85,5%) havia tomado antibiótico no último ano e (50,5%) deles havia tomado o mesmo antibiótico mais de uma vez. O maior nível de escolaridade dos participantes foi significativamente associado a um maior nível de conhecimento. Aumentos estatisticamente significativos nas porcentagens de respostas corretas para todas as questões foram observados após a sessão educacional. Conclusão: A sessão educacional individual é uma abordagem eficaz para lidar com a crise de resistência aos antibióticos. (AU)

Knowledge, attitude, and practices of dental patients presenting at a secondary health care facility in southern Nigeria towards covid-19

With the emergence of the COVID-19 disease, ascertaining the level of knowledge, attitudes and practices of patients will lead to effective patient education, creation of gaps in the life cycle of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and a decrease in the spread of the infection. Objective: To assess the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of dental patients presenting at a secondary healthcare facility in Southern Nigeria towards COVID-19.Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional descriptive study of dental patients presenting at the Dental department, Central Hospital Benin, Edo State, Nigeria between August 2020 and February 2021. Data on knowledge, attitude and practices were collected using a researcher-administered semi-structured questionnaire. Analysis of data was done using the IBM®SPSS® Statistics version 25 software. Data on categorical variables were expressed as frequencies and percentages. Mean percentage knowledge, attitude and practices was expressed as poor: < 50%, fair: 50% ­ 69.99%, good: ≥ 70%. Results: In this study, 244 questionnaires were analysed. The respondents' age ranged from 18 ­ 93, with a mean and median age of 34.93 ± 13.15 years and 32.00 years, respectively. The mean percentage knowledge (74.81%), attitudes (68.93%), and practices (63.99%) among patients concerning COVID-19 were good, fair, and fair, respectively. Conclusion: The respondents' knowledge concerning COVID-19 was good; meanwhile, attitudes and practices were fair. There is a need for a more robust health education and promotion programme on COVID-19, due to gaps in relevant sensitisation pathways

Tongue lesions and anomalies in a sample of Yemeni dental patients: a cross-sectional study

Background: Tongue examination helps considerably in diagnosing the underlying health state of the patient, especially in the cases of chronic diseases. The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence and association of tongue lesions with risk factors among Yemeni dental patients. Materials and methods: An oral medicine specialist examined all 713 patients attending the dental polyclinics at the University of Sciences and Technology (Sana’a, Yemen). The examination sheet was designed to include information related to patient characteristics, medical history, dental history, habits, and tongue lesions. Results: The prevalence of tongue lesions among the examined participants was 76.5 percent. The prevalence rate was 83.4 percent for males and 69.2 percent for females. Fissured tongue was the most common condition. Logistic regression analysis indicated that older age (p<0.001), gender (p=0.007), khat chewing (p<0.001), and smoking (p=0.001) were associated with fissured tongue; gender (p<0.001), khat chewing (p<0.001), and smoking (p<0.001) were associated with hairy tongue; and older age (p<0.001), khat chewing (p=0.001), and smoking (p=.021) were associated with coated tongue. Conclusion: The prevalence of tongue lesions among this sample of Yemeni population was 76.5 percent; fissured tongue and hairy tongue were the most prevalent lesions. Khat chewing, smoking, and older age were the associated risk factors for many of studied lesions and anomalies.

Prevalence of Medical Comorbidities in Dental Patients.

Background: Over the last few decades, oral health care has become a greater priority as people live longer with serious medical conditions and disabilities and the dentist must be aware of them to provide safe and effective oral care. Objective: To study the prevalence of medical comorbidities in patients seeking dental treatments. Design: A crosssectional observational study. Methods: The study was conducted at the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery of Dental College and hospital in north India starting from april 2014 to march 2016 for the presence of medically compromised conditions. Demographic data of the patients was also collected to determine the frequency of comorbidities that may affect the dental patients older than 30 years of age. Results: A total of 7216 patients visited the oral surgery OPD during the period of april 2014 to march 2016. 5040 patients aged 30 years and above were included in the study. From a total of 5040 patients, 1336 patients (26.5%) were having comorbidities. The age of patients ranged from 30 to 80 years with the mean age ± SD of 45.2 ± 11.6 years. The majority of them (54%) were in the 4th to 6th decades of life. There were 694 male patients (51.95%) and 642 female patients (48.05%). In this study, hypertension was the most prevalent comorbidity accounting for 13.8% of total patients followed by diabetes mellitus( 8.29%) and ischaemic heart disease which accounted for 7.28%.Within the strata of medically compromised individuals , prevalence of hypertension was recorded as high as 52.02 %, followed by diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular disease which has prevalence of 31.29% and 24.27% respectively. Conclusion: It is very important for the attending clinicians to have an exact knowl¬edge of the patient’s medical conditions to provide safe and effective dental treatment.

Strategic direction of developing service guidelines for dental patients with disability / 대한구강보건학회지

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed at assessing the quality of dental services, as perceived by the disabled, and analyzing the factors identified to be of both high importance and low performance, as identified by IPA. METHODS: The data were collected from June 8 to November 2, 2016, after approval by the institutional review board. Questionnaires were distributed to 1466 disabled dental service consumers, of which 349 cases were included. The data were analyzed by frequency analysis, multi-regression analysis for implicit importance, and IPA matrix for marketing strategy. RESULTS: The performance results revealed that cost level, reduction of the fee, and waiting time for treatments were the sources of greatest dissatisfaction. The IPA matrix results categorized the next appointment, explanation of the fee, waiting time for treatment, professionalism of the staff, and convenient facilities as high-importance, low-performance factors. Meanwhile, the results of the IPA matrix for consumer segmentation, according to recently used dental institutions were different. The dental clinic users evaluated professionalism of the staff, convenience of the facility, explanation of the fee, and cost level as high-importance, low-performance attributes. The dental hospital users indicated that waiting time for treatment and next appointment were high-importance, low-performance attributes. Finally, the public health center users indicated that convenience of booking, waiting time for treatment, convenience of facilities, reduction of the fee, and next appointment as high-importance, low-performance attributes. CONCLUSIONS: To improve the quality of dental service, we need to understand the needs of the dental patients with disability. All attributes that were categorized as high-importance, low-performance must be improved first and should accordingly be used as strategic factors to increase satisfaction with oral medical institutions.

Hepatitis B - Methods of Sterilization And Disinfection.

Hepatitis b is a slow killer and hence its potence is knowingly ignored. India has the second largest pool of HBV carriers. Hepatitis B causes health threat to dentists and orthodontic patients. In this article we would be describing the various methods of sterilization and disinfection of orthodontic clinic and instruments which protects both patient and orthodontist.