Parental Presence in Dental Operatory as a Behaviour Management Tool on Children in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India

Objective: To interpret the change in child's behaviour in presence/absence of parents during dental care. Material and Methods: Sixty children were examined till the age of 12 years visiting the out patient department of pediatric dentistry where parents along with the child were allowed in the operatory. After sometime parents were asked to leave and behavioural changes were noted. During revisit again the behaviour was noted according to Frankl scale. McNemar test was applied to test the behaviour response of children with parental absence/presence. The significance level was set at 5 %. Results: In 1st visit, 78.3% showed positive behaviour and 21.7% showed negative behaviour in parental absence, indicating that the child has more likelihood of showing positive behaviour in the presence of parents (p<0.001). More positive behaviour of the children is noticed, when the parents are present in 3 -5 year age group. In other 6-8 and 9-12 year age group, no difference was noticed in the presence or absence of the parents (p>0.05). In second visit, the negative behaviour reduced. When parents were absent 21.7% showed negative behaviour (p=0.000). This indicated that the child has more likelihood of showing positive behaviour in the presence of parents. Age group-wise analysis revealed that in the 3-5 years age group presence or absence of parents is a significant factor for child's behaviour. This factor is a non-issue in the elder age group like 6-8 years and 9-12 years. When the parents are absent, no significant difference was observed (p>0.05). Conclusion: There was no significant difference in parental presence/absence in elder children while the same can't be said for younger children.

Antioxidative efficiency of Triticum aestivum L. exposed to chromium stress.

Wheat (Triticum aestivum L. cv. Sonalika) seedlings were grown in presence of K2Cr2O7 (10, 50 and 100 ppm) for 7 days and growth, total chlorophyll, activities of antioxidative enzymes like superoxide dismutase (SOD; EC 1.15.1.1), catalase (CAT; EC 1.11.1.6) and guaiacol peroxidase (POX; EC 1.11.1.7) and lipid peroxidation were determined in root and shoot tissues. Growth of the seedlings was significantly (p < 0.05) depressed and at 100 ppm, root length was reduced by 63% and shoot length by 44% in comparison to the respective controls. Total chlorophyll loss in shoots was about 46% at 10 ppm of K2Cr2O7 which further increased to 80% at 100 ppm. Both in root and shoot tissues, activities of SOD and CAT declined with increase of metal in growth medium and it was significant (p < 0.05) even at lowest concentration of the metal tested. But POX activity showed a different trend. In root tissues it was decreased whereas in shoots, there was many fold increase in the activity (about 370% over control at 100 ppm). Malondialdehyde (MDA) content increased both in root and shoot tissues, but it reached significant (p < 0.05) level at 50 ppm in roots and at 100 ppm in shoot tissues. Even though antioxidative enzyme activities were not assayed in germinating embryos, inhibition in germination percentage (by 40% at 100 ppm) and increase in lipid peroxidation level (by 71% over control at 100 ppm) were observed in 2-day-old embryos, germinated in presence of K2Cr2O7 (10, 50 and 100 ppm). The results indicated the imposition of oxidative stress situations both during germination and early stages of seedling growth by Cr 6 stress, which might be one of the probable reasons behind Cr toxicity in plants.