Prevalence of Self Medication Practice among Dental Undergraduates in a Dental college.

INTRODUCTION: Self-medication practice among future prescribers can cause a serious threat to the health care profession. There has been an increasing trend among medical and dental students for self-medication. The objective of our study was to find the prevalence and practice of self-medication among dental undergraduates in Kantipur Dental College and Teaching Hospital. METHODS: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among all the dental undergraduate students of Kantipur Dental College, Kathmandu, from July to September 2018. Ethical clearance was obtained from the institutional review board. A convenience sampling method was used. A prevalidated questionnaire was handed to the students in their classroom to collect the data. The data were analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 16 and Microsoft Excel 2010 and presented as frequency and percentage. RESULTS: The prevalence of self-medication among dental undergraduates was found to be in 150 (83.3%) out of a total of 180 students who participated in the study. CONCLUSIONS: Self-medication was commonly practiced by dental students. Self-medication should be considered as a serious threat, especially among the students with inadequate knowledge of drug, dose, and duration of treatment.

Mean Nasal Index of Dental Students of A Dental College in Nepal.

INTRODUCTION: Human nose is one of the important anthropometric parameters for identification of sex and ethnicity of an individual of an unknown identity. The nasal index holds a great value in anthropological studies, because it is one of the anthropometric indices acknowledged in nasal surgery as well as management. The study aims to find the mean nasal index and the nose type of dental students of Kantipur Dental College of Nepal. METHODS: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 140 dental students in the Department of Anatomy, Kantipur Dental College Teaching Hospital and Research Center, Basundhara, Kathmandu. The studied population belongs to dental students of Kantipur Dental College and Research Centre. The nasal parameters include nasal height, nasal width which was measured using Digital Vernier Caliper and the nose was classified in three different types based on the value of nasal index. RESULTS: The mean nasal index of total population was 81.34±14.88 mm with confidence interval range of 78.85 and 83.83 mm. Mesorrhine type of nose was found to be most common among the total population. Mean nasal index in male is 84.49±12.46 mm and in female is 80.66±15.32 mm. CONCLUSIONS: This study concludes that the mean values of nasal index of the students fall under mesorrhine type of nose.

Antioxidant enzymes and oxidative stress in the erythrocytes of iron deficiency anemic patients supplemented with vitamins.

BACKGROUND: Iron deficiency anemia is one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Evidences from epidemiological and clinical studies suggest a possible correlation between antioxidant levels and the anemic disease risk. The present work is to investigate antioxidant levels and lipid peroxidation in anemic patients. METHODS: A number of 30 patients (15 males and 15 females) were selected for the study. Likewise, 30 age- and gender-matched healthy volunteers (15 males and 15 females) were selected with their informed consent. Patients and healthy subjects were supplemented with vitamins C and E for 15 days. The lipid peroxidation both in plasma and erythrocyte lysates was determined by thiobarbituric acid reactive substances and lipid peroxides. The antioxidant vitamins A, C, and E and total antioxidant activity were also analyzed. The antioxidant enzyme superoxide dismutase, catalase, and glutathione peroxidase were also determined. RESULTS: Based on analysis, we found that the increase in lipid peroxidation was higher in the anemic subjects before vitamin supplementation, which was statistically significant at P<0.05. The antioxidant enzymes were higher in the patients before antioxidant supplementation when compared with patients after vitamin supplementation. CONCLUSION: Our data revealed higher oxidative stress before vitamin supplementation in iron deficiency anemic patients and after supplementation, lower lipid peroxidation and increased antioxidant vitamins were achieved.