Oral treatment for obstructive sleep apnea syndrome / 华西口腔医学杂志

Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) is a common clinical disease with high incidence and low treating proportion, difficult evaluation, and complicated nosogenesis. OSAS can cause systematic impairments. Various treatment methods were applied in clinical setting with the tendency of cross-disciplinary promotion. Oral treatment plays an exceedingly important role in OSAS research and therapy. This study reports the oral treatment involving OSAS therapy.

Investigation of the optimized surgical procedure for the cleft palate patients over six years old / 华西口腔医学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To establish the optimized surgical procedure in our approach to treat the velopharyngeal insufficiency and improve the articulations of the patients with cleft palate over six years old.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Thirty-seven subjects over six years (including six years) old underwent the palatoplasty and sphincter pharyngoplasty simultaneously. We assessed the outcome of the surgery by perceptual speech assessment, nasopharyngoscopy and lateral cephalogram 10 to 15 months postoperatively.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Twenty-two subjects got complete velopharyngeal closure. The velopharyngeal closure ratio of 15 subjects were over 85% according to the findings of the nasopharyngoscopy. Lateral cephalograms reveal that all the subjects could get their velars raised and well contacted with the posterior pharyngeal wall in dynamic condition. Perceptual speech assessment: The rate of hypernasality and nasal emission decreased significantly, and the consonant articulation increased.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Our surgical procedure in this study corrected the velopharyngeal insufficiency and improved the articulation of the patients over six years old significantly.</p>

Usage status of periapical films undertaking in root canal treatment / 华西口腔医学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To determine the current radiographic practices of root canal treatment (RCT) undertaken by endodontists, general dentist practitioners (GDPs) and interns, and to analyze the relationship between the usage of periapical films and the quality of RCT.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The patients who had received RCT treatment in West China College of Stomatology were investigated at random and were divided into three groups: Endodontists treating group, GDPs treating group and interns treating group according treating physician. The usage status of periapical film were investigated by the well designed questionnaires. The obturation quality of postoperative films were evaluated. Chi-square analysis was used to compare usage rates of periapical films of three groups. Mann-Whitney test was used to determine the relationship between the usage of periapical films and the quality of RCT.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>571 teeth of 412 patients were investigated. In endodontists treating group, GDPs treating group and interns treating group, the usage rates of preoperative films were 95.3%, 89.5% and 92.1% respectively. The usage rates of working length films were 5.2%, 1.1% and 5.8% respectively. The usage of master point films was 94.8%, 72.1% and 97.4% respectively. The usage of postoperative films was 97.9%, 76.3% and 95.3% respectively. There were statistically significant differences among the working length films, master point films and postoperative films of three groups (P<0.05). The periapical films of adequate quality RCT and inadequate quality RCT were 3.14+/-0.639 and 2.84+/-0.736 respectively. There was statistically significant difference between periapical films of adequate quality RCT and inadequate quality RCT (P<0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Radiographic practices of endodontists and interns are more standardized than GDPs. Quality RCT is related to radiographic practices. Standard radiographic practices would be benefit to RCT.</p>

Comparative research of craniofacial structural characteristics of syndromic and non-syndromic patients with cleft palate / 华西口腔医学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To compare craniofacial structural characteristic of syndromic and non-syndromic patients with cleft palate and to probe into the reason of their maxillary hypoplasia and to lay a foundation for better treatment protocol for syndromic patients with cleft palate.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The sample consisted of 8 individuals with Treacher Collin syndrome, 9 patients with Pierre Robin syndrome, and 40 patients with non-syndromic cleft palate which met certain criterions. Lateral cephalometric radiographs were obtained from each study subject. A total of 18 variables, comprising 9 angular, 7 linear, and 2 ratio measurements, were studied. SPSS 12.0 software was used to describe the statistics data, consisting of means, SD, and t test.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The tendency for smaller value in SNB and larger value in ANB indicate a severer anteroposterior mandibular hypoplasia in the syndromic type cleft. There was no difference between syndromic and non-syndromic cleft palate patients with regards to maxillary anteroposterior development. No significant difference on the development in cranial base area was found either.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>This interplay of cranio-facial bones is very important in the development of this complex, which will not only affect the growth but also the defect development. In this study, the patients with the two syndromes showed the similar growth potential of maxilla with the non-syndromic cleft patients.</p>

Root canal curvature in chinese mandibular permanent incisors / 华西口腔医学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the root canal curvature in Chinese mandibular permanent incisors.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Two hundred and ninety nine Chinese mandibular permanent incisors were included in this study. The root canals were inserted with stainless steel 15# K files, and then taken radiography from the facial and proximal view by X-ray paralleling technique. Canal curvatures were evaluated by measuring the angle, the radius of the curvatures, and the length of the curved part of the canal. Based on the curved angle and the shape of curved canals, the root canals were classified.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The curved angle, radius, and the curved canal length was 5.28 degrees +/- 5.52 degrees, 16.19 mm +/- 12.38 mm, 4.10 mm+/-2.01 mm, respectively in the facial view; 9.99 degrees +/- 5.84 degrees, 18.86 mm +/- 9.71 mm, 3.27 mm +/- 2.39 mm, respectively in the proximal view. The prevalence of straight, light, moderate, and serve curved root canals in mandibular permanent incisors was 15.7%, 66.9%, 16.7%, and 0.7%, respectively (P<0.05) based on the curved angle. The prevalence of straight, L shape, and S shape curved root canals was 7.7%, 50.5%, and 41.8%, respectively (P < 0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Most of the root canals in mandibular permanent incisors are curve.</p>