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Background: With rising trends in research and scientific writing, various ethical organizations have been vigilant over developing rigorous authorship criteria. There may be times, when authors tend to publish more due to their seniority or previously earned credit for former publications, proving the existence of Matthew effect in scientific research. It indicates that the majority of publications in a field are contributed by smaller number of authors. It was hypothesized that the Matthew effect may be still applicable for scientific work published by Indian pediatric dentists in the official Journal of Indian Society of Pedodontics and Preventive Dentistry (JISPPD) from 2015 to 2019. Methodology: To assess the number of times each author has published in the official Journal of Indian Society of Pedodontics and Preventive Dentistry, we downloaded all issues for the 5-year period from the journal website. Full names of all authors were entered year-wise in Microsoft Excel 2007 and descriptive statistics were used for finding out contribution percentages. Results: A total of 372 papers were published during the study period by 1148 authors. About 82% had at least one publication, followed by 12% publishing at least two papers; only 1% of the total authors had contributed to more than five publications. The result showed the absence of Matthew effect for publications in the JISPPD. Conclusion: The final results of the study did not show any presence of Matthew effect among authorship in the JISPPD.
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Background: Medicines play a main role in the process of human development. The rational utilization of medicines can decrease morbidity and mortality as well as improve quality of life. In an era of steeply rising health care expenses, generic medicines provide a less expensive alternative to branded medicines. Use of generic drugs can contribute to substantial savings in medicines expenditure and the issue of access and affordability is thus addressed.Methods: A sample of 500 patients selected from out patient department was randomly selected. A self-instructed questionnaire was used for the study for the duration of 1 month. Data was analyzed using IBM SPSS statistics Version 20 New York, United States. Summary statistics were expressed using mean and standard deviation (SD) for numerical variables (median and interquartile ranges [IQRs] when skewed) and counts and percentages for categorical variables.Results: Participants reported with 17.23% knowledge score, 40.65% attitude score, and 7.96% attitude score.Conclusions: In the study it was found that there is significant correlation between knowledge and attitude whereas no correlation was found between knowledge and practice regarding usage of generic drugs.
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Introduction: Early childhood caries can affect quality of life (QoL) in children and their parents. The Oral Health related Early Childhood Quality of Life scale (OH-ECQoL) is used for measuring oral health-related QoL in North Indian preschool children. Same tool cannot be utilized only by linguistic translation in culturally different Manipuri population. Aims and Objectives: The aim of this study is to translate OH-ECQoL tool into Manipuri language and to reestablish its psychometric properties. Methods: The OH-ECQoL tool was translated into Manipuri language by forward–backward translation. The questionnaire was tested on 300 parents/primary caretakers of healthy children with the age range of 24–71 months. It was also retested on 20 parents after a gap of two weeks. Demographic characteristics and socioeconomic status were recorded in a predesigned proforma. Oral health status of children was recorded as per WHO oral health assessment form (2004). Statistical Analysis: The data were tabulated using Microsoft Excel 2010 and analyzed using SPSS version 11 software. Results: The tool possessed good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.836) and test–retest reliability (ICC = 0.94). Parents of children who scored higher on Manipuri-OH-ECQoL questionnaire perceived their children's general and oral health as poor when compared to children with lower scores, proving acceptable concurrent validity scores. Spearman's correlation coefficient between child and family impact scores of 0.668 is supporting convergent validity, which means that dental problems affect QoL of both children and their parents. Conclusion: The translated Manipuri-OH-ECQoL tool was found to be adequately valid, reliable, and repeatable without affecting the psychometric properties of the original tool. This suggests that it can be used in studies assessing the impact of oral diseases on QoL of preschool children and their families in Manipur.
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Objective: The objective of this study was to determine the most suitable material for indirect pulp treatment (IPT) clinically and to determine the thickness (in mm) and type of tissue in terms of radiodensity (in Hounsfield units [HU]) formed after pulp capping using cone‑beam computed tomography (CBCT) scan. Materials and Methods: A longitudinal interventional single‑blind randomized clinical trial was conducted on 94 children (7–12 years) with a deep carious lesion in one or more primary second molar and permanent first molar without the history of spontaneous pain indicated for indirect pulp capping (IPC) procedure. About 109 teeth were treated using three materials, namely, calcium hydroxide (setting type), glass ionomer cement (Type VII), and mineral trioxide aggregate randomly. The teeth were followed up at an interval of 8 weeks, 6 months, and 1 year for success of IPT as per the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry clinical criteria. For determining the thickness and type of dentin tissue formed, a CBCT scan was done immediately postoperative and another scan at an interval of 6 months. The scans were compared to evaluate the average thickness of the dentin bridge formed. Results and Conclusions: Success rate for IPC was 96.85%. A significant difference was obtained in the average thickness of reparative dentin at immediate postoperative and 6‑month postoperative values in all three groups suggesting distinct barrier formation. Similar significant findings were obtained in radiodensity of barrier formed (in HU). All three materials were found to be equally suitable as IPC agents suggesting mineral gain.
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Objective: The purpose of this study was to develop a reliable instrument [Oral Health related Early Childhood Quality of Life (OH- ECQOL) scale] for measuring oral health related quality of life (OHrQoL) in preschool children in North Indian population. Methodology: Four pediatric dentists evaluated a pool of 65 items from various QoL questionnaires to assess their relevance to Indian population. These items were discussed with eight independent pediatric dentists and two community dentists who were not a part of this study to assess relevance of these items to preschool age children based on their comprehensiveness and clarity. Based on their responses and feedback a modified pool of items was developed and administered to a convenience sample of 20 parents who rated these items according to their relevance. The test retest reliability was evaluated on another sample of 20 parents of 2-5 year old children. The final questionnaire comprised of 16 items (12 child and 4 family). This was administered to 300 parents of 24-71 months old children divided on the basis of early childhood caries to assess its reliability and validity. Results: OH-ECQOL scores were significantly associated with parental ratings of their child's general and oral health, and the presence of dental disease in the child. Cronbach's alpha was 0.862, and the ICC for test-retest reliability was 0.94. Conclusions: The OH-ECQOL proved reliable and valid tool for assessing the impact of oral disorders on the quality of life of preschool children in Northern India.