Treatment outcomes of pulpotomy versus pulpectomy in vital primary molars diagnosed with symptomatic irreversible pulpitis: protocol for a non-inferiority randomised controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Pulpectomy continues to be the standard treatment recommendation for management of vital primary molars diagnosed with symptomatic irreversible pulpitis. The recent decade has seen a paradigm shift in the treatment concepts of how vital mature permanent molars diagnosed with irreversible pulpitis can be more conservatively managed using vital pulp therapy techniques like pulpotomy. However, despite emerging evidence indicating similarities between primary and permanent tooth pulp response to dental caries, there is limited research on whether pulpotomy can be similarly used as a definitive treatment modality for vital primary teeth with irreversible pulpitis. This randomised controlled trial (RCT) aims to compare the treatment effectiveness of pulpotomy versus pulpectomy in management of vital primary molars diagnosed with symptomatic irreversible pulpitis over a two-year period. METHODS/DESIGN: This clinical study is a parallel, two-armed, open label, non-inferiority RCT with a 1:1 allocation ratio between the experimental intervention arm (pulpotomy) and the active comparator arm (pulpectomy). Healthy cooperative children, between 4-9 years of age, who have painful primary molars with clinical symptoms typical of irreversible pulpitis will be recruited after obtaining informed consent from their parents/legal guardians. 50 vital primary molars clinically diagnosed with symptomatic irreversible pulpitis will be randomly distributed between the two treatment arms. The primary outcomes that will be assessed are clinical and radiographic success after six-months, one-year and two-years of the trial interventions. The influence of baseline pre-operative variables (age; gender; tooth type; site of caries; pre-operative furcal radiolucency; pre-operative pain intensity) and intra-operative factors (time taken to achieve haemostasis) on treatment outcomes will also be assessed. The secondary outcome evaluated will be the immediate (24 h and 7 d) post-operative pain relief afforded by the two treatment interventions. DISCUSSION: This trial seeks to provide evidence on whether pulpotomy treatment can be no worse than the standard pulpectomy treatment for the management of symptomatic irreversible pulpitis in vital primary molars. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT06183203). Registered on 30 January 2024.

Dental implants in growing patients: A quality assessment of systematic reviews.

Background: Dental implants in the recent past have become indispensable in restoring loss of space and support as well as aiding the aesthetics. Although in practice for a few years there is no consensus on the protocols for placement and usage of dental implants in growing jaws. Objective: The present study aims to evaluate evidence-based literature on single or multiple dental implant placements in children(up to 17 years) and to identify areas lacking and gaps in knowledge. The quality assessment tool,namely AMSTAR-2, will also aim to evaluate the quality of said research around paediatric dental implants. Design: The study was prospectively registered on the Open Science Framework https://osf.io/e59bt/?view_only=ec8fb69455c240ecbfc7379734784bf7.For source selection, electronic searches were performed on MEDLINE, EMBASE, Scopus databases as well as Google Scholar for all English language systematic reviews and meta analysis on dental implants placed on children up to 17yrs of age by 2 reviewers, wherein the publications until December 2020 were included. A final dataset of 4 systematic reviews were incorporated and analysed using the AMSTAR-2 grading tool. Results: It was seen that only one study showed moderate overall confidence while one low overall confidence as per the AMSTAR-2. The other 2 systematic reviews were of critically low confidence levels. Hence, the existing systematic reviews on the subject are not of high quality. Most of the reviews have no consensus regarding use and placement of implants in growing patients. Conclusion: More research and stricter adherence to the quality assessment guidelines is recommended for all future systematic reviews regarding dental implant in children.

Credibility of YouTube™ videos on root canal treatment in children.

Background: A lot of videos on root canal treatment in children are available on YouTube™ but no quality checks are present. Addressing this is critical so that parents and dentists know why root canal in children is important including the explanation of procedural steps regarding treatment undertaken. Aim: The aim of this study is to analyze and grade YouTube™ videos on root canal treatment in children and assess whether it provides beneficial information for patients and dentists. Materials and Methods: Variables such as number of views, duration (minute), days since upload, number of comments, number of likes, number of dislikes, interaction index, and viewing rate were tabulated for selected 57 videos. Analysis: Selected videos were statistically analyzed using a 15-point scoring system and evaluated using SPSS software. Finally, the obtained data sets were classified as low-, moderate-, and high-content videos. Fisher's exact test was used to compare between proportions. Results: Based on the tabulated variables, most of the videos were low (n = 31) and moderate content (n = 24), which dentists mostly uploaded. There was no statistical significance between the video types and content score groups (P > 0.05). The most frequently mentioned issues were procedure (84.21%), obturating materials (75.44%), and etiology (63.16%). The least mentioned subjects were indications (24.56%) and importance (22.81%). Conclusion: From this study, YouTube™ videos on root canal treatment in children were of low and moderate quality. Hence, high-quality videos are essential for providing awareness among patients and dentists.

Influence of social media platforms in dental education and clinical practice: A cross-sectional survey among dental trainees and professionals.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES: Social media platforms (SMPs) have become a popular portal for the acquisition and dissemination of dentistry-related information. The study aims to identify the pattern and influence SMPs for education and practice among dental trainees and professionals. METHOD AND MATERIALS: A cross-sectional study involving dental trainees and clinical professionals was conducted based on a structured 20-item survey instrument among dental trainees and professionals. The validated questionnaire was circulated among six dental training institutions in India through the internet-based application Google form and achieved a response rate of 60%. The questionnaire focused on identifying the usage of social media in disseminating dentistry-related content. The data from responders were extracted, sorted, and analyzed for descriptive analysis of various factors. RESULT: The survey revealed the most common SMP used for dentistry-related content as YouTube. The second most commonly used SMP was Facebook for professionals whereas it was Instagram for younger trainees. There was a highly significant difference between professionals and trainees concerning their sources of new information and the most commonly used SMP for dental education (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: There is a growing consensus among young dental trainees and professionals on SMPs being an effective open access knowledge center. The survey results call for the need for a scientific journal and dental schools to have verified pages in social media to act as flagbearers of evidence-based dental practices. The potentials of SMPs in providing open access information collection to wider viewership across the globe and being a digital archive in attractive audio-visual forms can be used to strengthen the conventional educational model and improvise clinical practice.

Dental Patents in India: A Decade Long Review.

Background: The advent of technology in dentistry compels the safeguard of intellectual property to guarantee a steady flow of ideas. A guarantee preserves the idea/invention which is conductive to the subsequent financial gain or marketing of the said product for the patentee. The main objective of the present study was to illuminate the trends in the dental patents filed in India over the past decade and to analyze these in context with the recent developments in dental markets. Methodology: A total of 641 dental patent applications retrieved from the Indian Government Official Website between 2010 and 2020 were scanned for field of invention, type or status of application along with details regarding date of publication or filing of application, etc., The dataset was collaboratively analyzed using Panda's Library in Python software as analysis tool for data preparation and frequency analysis. The estimates were presented as mean differences and 95% confidence intervals. Results: The results showed that Indian Patent Office (IPO) has granted 54 dental patents in the last decade. The maximum applications of the IPO processes are the patent co-operation treaty National Phase applications (53.3%), mostly in the bio-engineering field (36.8%). Chiefly, patents were filed by individuals and companies (n = 180) and average time for grant was 4.90 years and 5.34 years, respectively. Conclusion: The process of patent application in India although has become digitalized needs to be more comprehensible and time bound, with more awareness disseminated to entrepreneurs and dental students alike.

A bibliometric analysis of the top 50 most cited articles published in the Journal of Conservative Dentistry.

Background: Bibliometric analysis is the quantitative analysis of measurable citation information of a journal. It unveils research topics, publishing trends, assess research impact, and productivity. Aims: The purpose of this study was to conduct a bibliometric analysis to identify and analyze the top 50 most cited articles published in the Journal of Conservative Dentistry (JCD). Methodology: Clarivate Analytics' Web of Science was used to search and identify the 50 most cited scientific papers of JCD. Each article was then cross-matched with Google Scholar and PubMed databases and the mean citation was derived. In addition, citation density for each article was derived to negate the age of publication factor. Statistical Analysis: Shapiro-Wilk test and Kolmogorov-Smirnov test were done to detect departures from normality. For testing and determining correlations among several variables, the Spearman rank test was performed. Results: The top 50 most-cited articles received a total of 6263 (Google Scholar), 323 (PubMed), and 2056 (Web of Science) citations. Major topics of interest in the top 50 most-cited articles were dental material science (n = 18) and carious and noncarious lesion management (n = 14). There was no significant association between mean citation count and time since publication (correlation coefficient = 0.273, P = 0.055). However, there was a significant negative association of citation density (correlation coefficient = -0.647, P < 0.01) with time since publication. Conclusions: Bibliometric analysis of top-cited articles gave valuable insights into journal's research history and progress of the journal concerning dissemination of scholarly work.

Comprehensive Analysis of Retracted Publications in Dentistry: A 23-Year Review.

BACKGROUND: In the modern tech-savvy era, scientific literature publication remains the optimal way to disperse knowledge, even if it has transformed from print to mostly electronic. With the new and improved publication methods, also come more scrutiny and analytic criticism of the scientific work. It becomes even more important in this context to rectify flawed scientific work responsibly. This present study was undertaken to help clarify the process and causes of retractions occurring in the dental community and analyse its reasons. Methodology. A total of 8092 PubMed indexed articles were scanned from the online libraries, and individually scanning for author details, place of study, subspecialty of research, funding, dates of original publication, and retraction notices issued along with journal specifics such as type and impact factors, country of publishing was compiled and analysed by two authors. The dataset was then collaboratively analysed using Panda's Library in Python software as an analysis tool for data preparation and for frequency analysis. The estimates were presented as mean differences (MD) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). RESULTS: The present study had a compiled dataset of 198 articles after screening and revealed that maximum retractions of dentistry-related research originated from India (25.3%) and, on average, took 2.6 years to be issued a retraction notice. We also deciphered that the USA retracted maximum dental articles (34.8%), and plagiarism was cited as the most common (38.02%) reason for doing so. The present study also brought to light that there was a trend for lower impact factor-dental journals in retracting maximum articles, most of which were nonfunded (62.16%). The results signify that 63.78% of all retracted papers continued to be cited postretractions. CONCLUSIONS: The retractions happening in the field of dental literature are currently too time-consuming and often unclear to the readers. The authors would like to conclude that the retracted papers were mostly from India and Spain mostly related to endodontics or prosthodontic research. All of this warrants the need for better scrutiny and reforms in the area.

Dental age estimation using Willems method: A cross-sectional study on children in a North Indian city.

BACKGROUND: Numerous methods of age estimation have been proposed. The Demirjian method which was first applied in a French-Canadian population in 1972 is the most frequently used dental age estimation method. However, a constant over estimation using this method has been reported by numerous researchers. The Willems method is a modification of the above and was first applied in a Belgian Caucasian population in 2002. Several studies in the recent years found Willems method to be more accurate than the original Demirjians method. OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to evaluate the applicability of Willems method for dental age estimation in 6 -15-year-old North Indian children. METHODS: The sample for this cross sectional study consisted of 390 OPGs of (215 boys and 175 girls) randomly selected from the patient records of a post graduate training dental college in North India. Exact chronological age of the subjects (in years and months) was calculated. The OPGs were used to score the seven mandibular teeth and dental age was estimated using the tables proposed in Willems method. RESULTS: Significant correlation between the chronological age and dental age estimated using Willems method was observed in both males (r = 0.90) and females (r = 0.87). The mean difference between estimated DA and CA for males was 0.004 ± 1.08 years (P = 0.94). While for females, it was 0.031 ± 1.18 years (P = 0.72). The results showed no statistically significant difference between chronological age and dental age estimated using Willems method in the study population. CONCLUSION: Willems dental age estimation method without any modification can predict the chronological age of 6-15 year old North Indian children with good accuracy.