Common criteria followed by dentists for extraction of periodontically weakened teeth.

Many a times, a situation arises where the dentist/ prosthodontist has to make a decision of extracting periodontically weakened teeth before making a final treatment plan for rehabilitating the patient. The purpose of this study is to understand the different criteria followed by dentists to indicate teeth with periodontitis for extraction. A questionnaire was formatted and distributed to 200 dentists in colleges and private clinics. The criteria for evaluation included a) tooth mobility b) loss of tooth attachment ( c) furcation involvement (d) perio- endo lesions (e) referral to a periodontist for evaluation (f) radiographic bone loss greater than 50% (g) socio- economic status of the patient ( h) prosthodontic planning. It was found that the most commonly used criteria was the presence of mobility (41%) followed by severity of bone loss (24.5%) and radiographic evaluation of bone loss (22.1%). The study pointed out the variability of the criteria of different operators and the need for combined treatment planning and prognosis from multi specialities i,e periodontics, prosthodontics and endodontics.

Color Blindness In Dental Students And Staff- An Obstacle In Shade Selection For Restorations .

Dentists having defective color vision may be unaware of their defect or may have problems in perceiving color as normal vision dentists do. People who are "color vision defective" tend to be missing some of the color-sensitive cones, so these colors will appear darker. The aim of the present study is to 1. estimate the number of dental students/ personnel having problems in color discrimination based on a color blindness test 2. To refer the students/ personnel to a specialist for confirmative diagnosis. 3. To provide alternate options for shade selection to the same. Dental students, dental teachers and dental technicians/ dental auxiliaries were randomly selected for the study, with a sample size of 400 with age range of 17 to 35 out of which 200 were males and 200 females. An Ishihara color blindness test (numbers made up of color dots) was conducted to screen the dental personnel for color defective vision in the same room and in the same light source. 5% of the male and 0% of female dental personnel/ students were found to be color vision defective. Counseling to such students and personnel required to take assistance in appointments of shade selection / matching.