A comparison of oral hygiene status and dental caries in children on long term liquid oral medications to those not administered with such medications.

Young chronically ill children receive a greater sugar load from liquid medications than do healthy children. They receive variety of oral liquid medications that healthy children do not This study was planned to know the levels of oral hygiene and Dental caries in children on long term liquid oral medicines (LOM) and to know out if any difference existed between these and children not on LOM. 51 children on LOM were compared to 54 not on LOM after equalising for age, oral hygiene and diet intake. Highly significant difference was found for dmft and dmfs in 2-6 year age group and dmft+ DMFT for 6-13 years age group, mostly posterior teeth were affected and for this the difference was statistically significant in 2-6 year old children. Percentage of children with dmft>5 significantly increased in 2-6 years old children on LOM, when compared to that of control. Percentage of various grades of lesions (relating to the severity) also increased with an increase in the duration of LOM.

Dental maturity as an indicator of chronological age: radiographic evaluation of dental age in 6 to 13 years children of Belgaum using Demirjian methods.

The study was designed to determine dental age from orthopantomograph using Demirjian method and to investigate applicability of Demirjian method for estimation of chronological age in children of Belgaum. The sample for the study consisted of 197 subjects between 6-13 years of age. When Demirjian method was applied to Belgaum children, mean difference between true and assessed age for males showed overestimation of 0.14 years (51 days) and females showed overestimation of 0.04 years (15 days). Demirjian method showed high accuracy when applied to Belgaum children.

Taurodontism and pyramidal molars.

The present study was conducted to investigate the occurrence of taurodontism and pyramidal molars in Goa children, hitherto considered rare in Indians. Radiographs of 300 children of 9 to 13 years were evaluated. The criteria of Keene (1966) was used to designate taurodonts. Ten children showed taurodontism: involving mandibular second molars in eight cases, maxillary first molars in three cases; and pyramidal molars in three cases, four cases showed associated findings. Hypodontia of one to fourteen teeth was observed in all four cases. In addition one case showed thinning of maxillary central incisors, rotation of lateral incisors, impacted supernumerary and a canine and polydactyly of hands and feet. The condition does not appear rare in this population group.