Procedures Used in Managing SARS-CoV-2 Infected Dental Personnel or Patients: A Case Study From a Thai Dental Hospital.

SARS-CoV-2 can transmit undetected from asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic patients in dental clinics. Triaging dental patients using temperature and questionnaire screening cannot completely exclude asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infected individuals. Hence, asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infected individuals might visit dental hospitals/clinics seeking dental treatment without knowing that they are infected and might infect others, especially in a pandemic area. Ideally, a nasopharyngeal swab for real-time polymerase chain reaction or rapid antigen screening for dental personnel and patients prior to their appointment should be done. However, the implementation of this approach is impractical in some situations. Here, we describe the procedures for dental hospitals/clinics in case of an asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infected individual involved in dental service/treatment and later after testing positive for SARS-CoV-2. Potential closely contacted individuals were traced and classified according to their exposure risk. The recommended course of action is to identify individuals based on their risk and take the risk-appropriate action. We also discuss the implementation of these procedures in a dental setting during the COVID-19 pandemic in our school as a case study.

Learning programmes and teaching techniques to enhance oral health literacy or patient-centred communication for healthcare providers: A systematic review.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the learning programmes and teaching techniques used in interventions to enhance oral health literacy (OHL) or patient-centred communication (PCC) for healthcare providers. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A systematic review of OHL and PCC were obtained from four electronic databases (PubMed, ScienceDirect, ProQuest and Scopus) was undertaken. These searches covered the period from January 2008 to December 2017. The quality assessment tool was the Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal tool for systematic reviews of effectiveness. RESULTS: The final review included nine studies amongst a total of 1475 studies. They showed three learning programmes (workshops, training and community-based rotation) and 17 related teaching techniques to promote OHL and PCC. The most commonly used learning programmes to enhance OHL and PCC for healthcare providers were workshops, and the teaching techniques included feedback and reflection. The intervention periods of the programmes took 20 minutes to half a day. The three studies did not have a follow-up, whilst the rest showed a follow-up range of 2 months to 3 years. Interestingly, there was one study, which applied double follow-ups to show the effectiveness of the programme. CONCLUSION: Either workshops or training programmes with a combination of teaching techniques were effective in terms of enhancing their OHL or PCC. The more frequent follow-up might increase the long-term effectiveness of the learning programme.

Effective Fluoride Mouthwash Delivery Methods as an Alternative to Rinsing.

BACKGROUND: Special-needs patients with high caries risk cannot benefit from the proven caries-reducing effect of fluoride mouthrinse because of poor rinsing compliance and a lack of home-use fluoride application recommendations. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to evaluate whether two modified delivery methods-spray or swab application-could raise the salivary fluoride to levels similar to that of rinsing. METHODS: Five healthy men and 16 healthy women, ages 18-22 years, participated in this crossover study. The subjects performed a standardized brushing routine twice a day with 1,000-ppm fluoride dentifrice 1 week before and during the experimental period. The three fluoride mouthwash (0.05% NaF; 226-ppm fluoride) administration methods consisted of rinsing, spray, and cotton swab application. Each application was separated by at least 1 week. Unstimulated whole saliva was sampled for 2 minutes at baseline and at 0, 5, 10, 20, 30, 60, and 120 minutes after each fluoride mouthwash application. Salivary fluoride level (ppm) was measured by a blinded investigator using an ion-specific electrode (ORION EA940). The differences in salivary fluoride concentration for each application method were analyzed by repeated measures ANOVA at a nominal significance level of .05. RESULTS: The newly designed fluoride mouthwash delivery methods yielded a similar fluoride level in whole saliva compared to that of rinsing at all time points (p > .05). The t half-life of fluoride concentration ranged from 1.62 minutes (SD = 0.53) in the spray group to 2.08 minutes (SD = 0.87) in the cotton swab group; the values were not significantly different. DISCUSSION: Our results indicate that the spray and cotton swab fluoride delivery methods were effective alternatives to conventional mouth rinsing. Caregivers of individuals with acute and chronic illness, including developmental disabilities affecting cognitive or physical abilities, may consider using these alternative fluoride delivery methods to help promote dental hygiene.

Catabolism of heparan sulfate proteoglycans in Drosophila cell lines.

We have studied intracellular catabolism of heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs) in Drosophila cell lines, Kc and S2, by a series of pulse-chase experiments using [(35)S]sulfate as a precursor in metabolic labeling experiments. HSPGs in culture medium and cell layer were separately purified by serial chromatographic procedures using Q-Sepharose and Superose 6 for characterization. Analysis of intact HSPG on Superose 6 chromatography revealed that Kc and S2 cells synthesize one major molecular species with slightly differing in sizes (estimated to be 54kDa in Kc and 78kDa in S2 cells). Analysis of glycosaminoglycans for (35)S-labeled macromolecules showed that the majority of (35)S-labeled macromolecules in Kc and S2 cells are HSPGs ( approximately 60% and approximately 80%, respectively). Results from continuous labeling and 2h pulse labeling-chase experiments revealed that, in both cell lines, the intact HSPGs were degraded in multiple phases; the degradation of HSPG was rapid in the early phase (with half-lives of approximately 6h in Kc and approximately 3h in S2 cells) and slow in the later phase (with half-lives >80h in both Kc and S2 cells). The rapid degradation appeared similar to that observed for glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored HSPGs (glypicans) in mammalian cell cultures. While the slow degradation appeared similar to that observed for transmembrane HSPGs (syndecans) in mammalian cell cultures. These experiments suggested that vertebrates and invertebrates shared common mechanisms for intracellular HSPG catabolism.