Investigating psychosocial impact of cleft lip and palate on patients and parents

The objectives of this study are to evaluate the psychosocial impact of cleft lip and palate [CLP] condition among non-syndrome patients and their parents in Malaysia. Total eighty three CLP patients [age > 10 years] and eighty three parents were selected from university of Malaya medical centre [UMMC] and Hospital Kota Bharu I Hospital Raja Perumpuan Zainab II [HKB I HRPZII] Kelantan Malaysia. The Questionnaires were used for determining impact of CLP condition on psychosocial status of patients and parents. It was found that due to CLP condition majority of patients were teased. In addition, the self-confidence of CLP patients was also adversely affected. Among the parents 22.9% felt upset always, 36.1% felt upset often while 8.4% felt upset sometimes about their child oral cleft in the current study. Only 26.5% of the patients reported that they have problems at school due to their CLP condition. About 54.2% of patients were having very good relationship with other children, 37.3% had reasonably good and 8.4% were having quite good relationship with other children. The prevalence of teasing was quite high among the oral cleft patients. The self-confidence was adversely affected because of the cleft condition among majority of the patients

Investigating the antibacterial effect of chitosan in dental resin composites: a pilot study

The tendency of [resin-based composites] RBCs to allow more plaque formation results in secondary caries. Chitosan [CS] inhibits the growth of Streptococcus mutans [S.mutans]; which is most frequently caries causing bacteria. Therefore, CS was incorporated into RBCs to determine its in vitro antibacterial activity against S.mutans. CS was added to flowable and microhybrid RBCs at various concentrations of 0 [control] 0.25, 0.5 and 1.0% by weight. Five disc shaped specimens [15mm diameter, 2mm thickness] were prepared for each experimental and control group. Interaction of cured chitosan modified RBCs with S. mutans biofilms was evaluated using agar diffusion test method. The results of ADT were negative. The experimental RBCs containing CS did not show growth inhibition zone around lawn growth of S.mutans compared to control group. Further experiments are in progress to determine CS modified RBCs antibacterial efficacy by direct contact test. Within the limitations of this study Antibacterial activity of CS modified RBCs is comparable to that of commercial RBCs when evaluated by agar diffusion test method

Demographic data on the characterization of oral clefts in Malaysia

The aim of this study was to investigate current epidemiology of several types of oral clefts among the patients receiving treatment at two tertiary care hospitals, namely University Malaya Medical Centre [UMMC] Kuala Lumpur, and Hospital Kota Bharu / Hospital Raja Perumpuan Zainab II [HKB/ HRPZII] Kelantan. This study evaluated the records of 526 cleft lip and palate [CLP] patients with or without additional malformations, who came for treatment during 2003 to 2007. Of the total 526 patients registered in the study hospital records during the study period, 338 were from HKB/ HRPZ II and 188 from UMMC. Majority 86.7% of these patients were in the age group