ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes edentulism as a physical impairment that results in a negative impact in the daily activities. OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to compare the satisfaction and the quality of life, in patients treated with implant retained overdentures with two mandibular implants (IOD) against those with mandibular conventional complete dentures (CCD). METHODS: Different search strategies were used to screen for articles in Pubmed/Medline, Cochrane Library and Scielo of the last 17 years (2003-2020). The keywords used were: "quality of life OR satisfaction" AND "complete denture OR conventional denture" AND "overdenture OR implant retained." RESULTS: Six articles and two more were added by manual search. The population was 400 in the CCD and 412 for IOD. The mean age was 64.3 ± 6.41 years. The group was comprised of 283 men and 427 women. The scores obtained in the visual analog scale (VAS) before and after the treatment were statistically significant in favor of the IOD for overall satisfaction, (WMD: 12.329; 95% CI: 4.873 to 19.784, p-value = 0.001), comfort, speech and stability. For esthetics and chewing there was non-significant improvement while hygiene worsened for the IOD. For the comparison after the treatment between both treatment modalities a statistically significant improvement was found in overall satisfaction (WMD: 14.408; 95% CI: 8.589 to 20.226, p-value < 0.001), comfort, speech, chewing and stability in favor of the IOD but not in esthetics or hygiene. CONCLUSIONS: This systematic review and meta-analysis show the superiority of the IOD, despite is not achieved in all aspects.
Subject(s)
Dental Implants , Denture, Overlay , Aged , Dental Prosthesis, Implant-Supported , Denture, Complete , Denture, Complete, Lower , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Patient Satisfaction , Personal Satisfaction , Quality of LifeABSTRACT
Data visualization is an essential tool for exploring and communicating findings in medical research, especially in epidemiological surveillance. The COVID19-Global online web application systematically produces daily updated data visualization and analysis of the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic on a global scale. It collects automatically daily data on COVID-19 diagnosed cases and mortality worldwide from January 1st, 2020 onwards. We have implemented comparative data visualization between countries for the most common indicators in epidemiological surveillance to follow an epidemic: attack rate, population fatality rate, case fatality rate, and basic reproduction number. The application may help for a better understanding of the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic worldwide.
ABSTRACT
Data visualization is an essential tool for exploring and communicating findings in medical research, especially in epidemiological surveillance. The COVID19-Tracker web application systematically produces daily updated data visualization and analysis of the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in Spain. It collects automatically daily data on COVID-19 diagnosed cases, and mortality from February 24th, 2020 onwards. Several analyses have been developed to visualize data trends and estimating short-term projections; to estimate the case fatality rate; to assess the effect of the lockdown measures on the trends of incident data; to estimate infection time and the basic reproduction number; and to analyse the excess of mortality. The application may help for a better understanding of the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic data in Spain.
ABSTRACT
Purpose/aim: Ultrasound has demonstrated anti-inflammatory and pain-relief benefits in several conditions such as cellulite or trauma events. We assessed the efficacy of ultrasound therapy on nodules associated with first-line treatments in multiple sclerosis patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-two multiple sclerosis patients were enrolled during 2013 and randomized to two groups: in the control group patients were treated only with a conventional gel prescribed for cellulite and nodules, while in the experimental group the gel was combined with ultrasound therapy. Patients were treated during 10 weeks and followed up for 10 additional weeks. Three nodules were assessed for each patient, measuring size, pain and redness at 0, 10 and 20 weeks. RESULTS: We found a significant decrease in both groups in size, pain and redness across the three visits (p < 0.0001 for size, p = 0.01 and p < 0.0001 for pain, and p = 0.0002 and p < 0.0001 for redness, respectively for the difference at visit 2 and 3 with respect to visit 1). More interestingly, we observed a greater reduction in pain and redness in the ultrasound-treated group, but the difference was only statistically significant at 10 weeks (p = 0.01 for both pain and redness). On the third visit, no differences between control and experimental groups were detected, both achieving the same levels in measured variables. CONCLUSIONS: Both treatments are useful to improve skin reaction after first-line treatments, but ultrasound in combination with gel achieves a faster reduction in pain and redness, suggesting that ultrasound treatment might be a good analgesic for nodule management in multiple sclerosis patients.
