Skeletal, dentoalveolar and soft tissue changes after stabilization splint treatment for patients with temporomandibular joint disorders.

BACKGROUND: Temporomandibular disorder (TMD) is a grouping of heterogeneous disorders with multifactorial origins. Stabilization splints (SS) have demonstrated an acceptable treatment effect in TMD. The possible changes at the skeletal, dental, and soft tissue levels need to be addressed to evaluate the benefit/risk ratio of this therapeutic procedure. Accordingly, this study aimed to three­dimensionally evaluate skeletal, dentoalveolar and soft tissue changes after SS treatment for patients with TMD. METHODS: This retrospective study included 74 adult patients with myofascial and/or intra-articular disorders (25 males and 49 females), with an average age of 22.88 ± 4.8 years, who underwent SS treatment. Pre- and post-treatment Cone beam computed tomography were analysed using Invivo 6.0.3 software. The primary outcome was the vertical skeletal and dentoalveolar changes, while the secondary outcomes were the anteroposterior skeletal, dentoalveolar and soft tissue changes. Paired t-test and Wilcoxon rank sum test were used for statistical analyses. RESULTS: For the primary outcome; skeletally, there was a significant increase in mandibular plane inclination (difference: 0.82°±1.37), decrease facial height ratio (difference: 0.45%±1.07) and at the dentoalveolar level, the inclination of the functional (FOP-SN, FOP-FH) and bisecting (BOP-SN, BOP-FH) occlusal planes exhibited a significant increase too (difference: 0.38 ± 1.43°, 0.49 ± 1.62°, 0.44 ± 1.29° and 0.41 ± 1.17°, respectively) and also a decrease in the overbite (difference: -0.54 ± 0.83). For the secondary outcomes; there was a significant decrease in mandibular position (SNB) (difference: 1.60 ± 1.36°) and increase in the overjet (difference: 0.93 ± 1.04, p < 0.001) and a significant lower lip retrusion (difference: 0.33 ± 1.01 mm p < 0.01), was observed too. CONCLUSIONS: SS therapy resulted in significant vertical skeletal and dentoalveolar changes that were manifested mainly by facial height ratio, mandibular and occlusal plane changes, and to a lesser extent, significant anteroposterior skeletal, dentoalveolar, and soft tissue changes in the form of mandibular position, increased overjet and a more retrusive lower lip. These changes should be considered during patients' selection prior to initiating SS therapy.

Exploring what synchronized physiological arousal can reveal about the social regulatory process in a collaborative argumentation activity.

Combining physiological measures with observational data (e.g., video or self-reports) to further capture and understand the temporal and cyclical process of social regulation has become a trend in the field. Synchronized physiological arousal is a particularly meaningful situation in collaboration. However, little attention has been given to synchronized physiological arousal episodes and their relationship with the social regulatory process. In addition, only a few research utilized heart rate (HR) as a physiological measure in the current collaboration literature. More research is necessary to reveal the potential of HR to expand the diversity of physiological indicators in the field. Therefore, the current study aimed to explore what synchronized physiological arousal can further reveal about the social regulatory process. To achieve this goal, this study designed a collaborative argumentation (CA) activity for undergraduates (mean age 20.3). It developed an arousal-regulation analysis platform, which could automatically detect synchronized physiological arousal in HR and align them with coding challenges and social regulation based on the timeline. In total, 14 four-member groups were recruited. After analyzing both videos and HR data, several findings were obtained. First, only one-third of episodes were synchronized physiological arousal episodes, and the situations where four members were all in arousal states were rare during CA. Second, synchronized physiological arousal was more sensitive to socio-emotional aspects of collaboration as the shared physiological arousal more frequently co-occurred with socio-emotional challenges and socio-emotional regulation, while it happened the least under motivational challenges. Third, synchronized physiological arousal has also been found to be associated with the challenges being regulated. Finally, pedagogical implications were suggested.

Preparation and characterization of carboxymethyl chitosan/collagen peptide/oxidized konjac composite hydrogel.

Medical dressings are used to protect damaged skin from external factors and provide a good healing environment. Hydrogels are aggregates of hydrophilic polymers and water that have a three-dimensional space and can absorb large amounts of water. It has been widely studied in the field of biomedical materials. In this study, we prepared a novel composite hydrogel combined carboxymethyl chitosan, collagen peptide and oxidized konjac, all three materials have been shown to be biocompatible. Then, we set up different hydrogels and tested hydrogels with different proportions. The structures of CMCS (carboxymethyl chitosan)/COP (collagen peptide)/OKGM (oxidized konjac) hydrogels were characterized by IR, NMR, X-ray diffraction and SEM. The effects of hydrogels on the growth of NS-FB and HS-FB cells were studied in vitro. The results of these tests show that the composite hydrogel has excellent mechanical properties and biological activity, and has potential application in wound dressing field.

Modification of chitosan grafted with collagen peptide by enzyme crosslinking.

Free radicals are closely related to the occurrence and development of aging, cancer and inflammation. In this paper, the microbial transglutaminase (MTGase) was used as a catalyst to graft the collagen peptide (COP) molecules on the amino group of carboxymethyl chitosan sulfate (CMCS) to improve the antioxidant effects. FT-IR and NMR spectroscopy were used to confirm the successful grafting of COP to CMCS. Degree of substitution (DS) of CMCS-COP could be controlled by adjusting the reaction conditions. With the increase of concentration, the ability of each sample on scavenging capacity and reducibility tends to increase obviously. The results of anticoagulant experiments showed that the ability of CMCS and CMCS-COP with three different degrees of substitution on activated partial thrombin time (APTT) and prothrombin time (PT) values were all increased to compare with the control group. No relevant cytotoxicity against NIH-3T3 mouse fibroblasts was found for the copolymers. These results suggested that CMCS-COP would appear to be a promising candidate for wound dressing application.

[The application of CAD/CAM technology on the reconstruction of the thyroid cartilage].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the value of computer-aided design/computeraided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) technology for individual reconstruction of the thyroid cartilage defects. METHOD: Select the 20 New Zealand white rabbits (male or female). Randomly divided into two groups. Group A in the pre-operative CT scan of the throat, three-dimensional reconstruction of the thyroid cartilage imaging, surgical removal of either side of the thyroid cartilage, defect implanted in the use of CAD/CAM technology and mirror technology to produce personalized restorative materials; Group B surgical resection either side of the thyroid cartilage, defect implanted production of non-personalized probably according to the experimental animals unilateral thyroid cartilage repair materials. After surgery by gross observation, electronic laryngoscopy observed experimental animals throat. RESULT: General check and electronic laryngoscopy show: the use of CAD/CAM technology to prepare the individual repair materials throat plays better supporting role than the non personalized materials. CONCLUSION: CAD/CAM technology before surgery designed to provide a personalized solid model to improve the accuracy of the surgery, time saving surgery to reduce surgical complications.

[Diagnosis and treatment of verrucous laryngeal cancer--a case report].

A male patient of 71 years old was admitted due to repeated hoarseness for two years which got worse accompanied with dyspnea so that to receive tracheotomy in another hospital more than one month ago. The two vocal cord biopsies carried out in the other hospital before showed vocal keratosis and squamous cell hyperplasia. Electronic laryngoscopy result showed normal epiglottis. a lot of saliva at hypopharynx, and rough arytenoid mucosa. The supraglottic area was remarkably swollen and the glottal area can not be observed clearly. The biopsy of throat was unable to conduct. Barium swallow examination revealed no obvious space-occupying lesion in piri form fossa or esophagus. Larynx CT scan showed a space-occupying lesion in the laryngeal cavity on the right side of the neck involving the thyroid cartilage. The patient was finally treated by total laryngectomy. cervical infected tissue resection. grafting transposition with pectoralis major flap and tracheostomy. The postoperative pathology showed laryngeal verrucous carcinoma.