Diagnostic predictability of self-reported questionnaire for periodontitis / 대한구강보건학회지

OBJECTIVES: The present study aimed to evaluate the validity of a set of self-reported questionnaires for periodontitis for estimating the prevalence of chronic adult periodontitis in the Korean population. METHODS: The questionnaire is comprised of a total of 14 questions with four summarized concepts including self-diagnosis of oral status, subjective signs related to oral health, smoking and drinking status, and use of auxiliary oral hygiene devices including scaling. The predictiveness of the measures from these self-reported questions was assessed by logistic regression modeling using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) statistics, sensitivity, and specificity. RESULTS: The sensitivity, specificity, and AUC including all questions were 0.571, 0.768, and 0.781, respectively; the sum of sensitivity and specificity was 1.34. To gain robustness, a simplified predictive model was built with six questions. Its results were 0.536, 0.817, and 0.762 for sensitivity, specificity, and AUC, respectively. The sum of sensitivity and specificity was found to be 1.35. CONCLUSIONS: The self-reported questionnaire for periodontitis showed considerable validity, but further study is required to provide optimal validity and predictability.

Comparison of the whitening effect of toothpastes containing 0.25% hydroxyapatite and 0.75% hydrogen peroxide / 대한구강보건학회지

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to compare the tooth bleaching effect of two whitening materials in toothpaste i.e., hydroxyapatite and hydrogen peroxide on. In a randomized, double blinded controlled clinical trial, 85 participants with tooth colorations were assigned to use one of three toothpastes containing either hydroxyapatite (0.25%), hydrogen peroxide (0.75%), or no active ingredient (placebo). The patients were examined at baseline and 1, 2, and 3 months after usage. METHODS: The patients underwent an oral examination, tooth shade measurement, and a subjective evaluation. During the oral examination, the patient's oral health status was determined. ShadeEye NCC and Vita classical shade guide were used to determine the tooth color. Further, the patients were asked to assess the color of their own teeth using a visual analog scale (VAS) scale (range, 1-5). RESULTS: According to the CIELAB system, a significantly greater color change (Deltab*) was observed in the hydrogen peroxide group (2.10+/-1.54) than in the hydroxyapatite (1.50+/-1.09) and control (0.94+/-0.75) groups after 3 months of toothpaste usage (P0.05). The subjective evaluation results of the hydroxyapatite (P=0.023) and hydrogen peroxide (P=0.047) groups were statistically significant at each time point. CONCLUSIONS: The hydrogen peroxide-containing toothpaste caused significant lightening of tooth coloration than the hydroxyapatite and placebo toothpastes.

Impact of amalgam removal on urinary mercury concentration in children: a pilot study / 대한구강보건학회지

OBJECTIVES: This pilot study aimed to evaluate the effect of dental amalgam, a restorative material, on children by measuring the mercury concentration in the urine as well as the number of teeth filled with dental amalgam. METHODS: Twenty children enrolled in grades 1-4 of two elementary schools in Daegu participated in this study. One trained dentist performed oral examinations and removed amalgam restorations from the teeth with a high and low speed handpiece. In order to measure the urinary mercury concentrations, urine samples were collected from all participants at baseline and immediately and 24 hours after removal of the dental amalgam restorations. RESULTS: The mean number of teeth from which the amalgam restorations was removed was 9.8 while the mean urinary mercury concentrations at baseline, immediately, and 24 hours after removal of dental amalgam restorations were 2.66, 2.76, and 2.76 microg/g creatinine, respectively. The mean urinary mercury concentration increased consistently after amalgam restoration removal. For those participants whose removed amalgamated surfaces were more than 11, the mean urinary mercury concentration immediately after amalgam restoration removal and 24 hours after removal increased consistently but showed no significant difference. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated that dental amalgam restoration was related to urinary mercury concentration, and these findings present a possibility of mercury accumulation in the body. Therefore, we suggest future longitudinal studies to ensure the safety of children exposed to mercury by establishing criteria for amalgam removal.

Development of a smart oral examination system for tablet personal computers / 대한구강보건학회지

OBJECTIVES: In the present study, we aimed to develop an oral examination smart chart application for tablet personal computers (PC). We evaluated the time required to perform an oral examination and assessed the degree of user's convenience by using this application. We determined to make our application cost and human resource effective by automatically computerizing the statistics to facilitate its application in oral health services such as national oral health research. The development of this application for tablet PCs was aimed at recording the results of oral examinations. METHODS: We produced flow charts and designed the program screen, which would replace the existing paper chart. To evaluate the efficiency of the application, 1 preventive dentistry professor and 6 dentistry students performed an oral examination on 41 subjects. We performed the oral examination in duplicate using a tablet PC and a paper chart. The data collected were analyzed using the SPSS 18.0 program. P-values less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant. RESULTS: The time required for oral examination by the study group (the group using the application) and the control group (the group using paper) were 131.93+/-10.14 and 151.85+/-7.77, respectively; the difference between these values was statistically significant (P-value=0.002). The oral examination could be performed faster in the study group (the group using the application) than in the control group; therefore, we noted that the time taken for oral examination was reduced by using the application. CONCLUSIONS: The tablet-based system has been shown to save time by omitting the step of entering the paper chart data into a computer. Further, the findings of this study can be used to establish an oral health index database with the help of additional resources. Moreover, it would facilitate creating awareness among the patients with regard to their oral health indices through the use of visual aids.