Does oral health counseling effectively improve oral hygiene of orthodontic patients?

AIM: The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of oral health counseling sessions with traditional oral hygiene education in orthodontic patients with fixed appliances. STUDY DESIGN: randomised control trial with experimental and control group. A group of 99 adolescents with fixed orthodontic appliances were randomly assigned to oral health counseling (experimental) or traditional health education (control) group. Subjects in the control group received verbal instructions and a demonstration of the modified Bass brushing technique on a model. The experimental group also received the verbal information with demonstration on the model and in addition a personalised 40-minutes counseling session on oral hygiene. Plaque Index (PI) and gingivitis (G) were recorded before, 1 and 6 months after the counseling session/traditional education. RESULTS: Oral health counseling and traditional education improved the oral hygiene of orthodontic patients. PI values were significantly lower after 6 months compared to the baseline in both groups, but the prevalence of gingival inflammation remained significantly lower only in the experimental group. CONCLUSION: Oral health counseling increased plaque removal efficacy and control of gingival inflammation. The efficiency of counseling and traditional education was similar. Counseling is a promising approach that warrants further attention in a variety of dental contexts.

Individual differences between nuclear parameters of normal and malignant breast epithelium.

This study attempts to estimate the status of estrogen and progesterone receptors (ER and PR) in tissue of invasive breast carcinoma. Identical stereologic parameters of nuclear ultrastructure, of normal and malignant epithelium in the same breast were compared. Samples of normal and malignant epithelium of 30 surgically amputated breasts were analysed morphometrically. The concentration of ER and PR in the malignant epithelium was estimated by means of the dextran-coated charcoal (DCC) method. We measured the mean nuclear area (A), nuclear specific density (Sv/Vv) and nuclear numerical density (Nv) of epithelium. The comparison of such models of normal and malignant epithelium nuclear ultrastructure of the same breast demonstrated: a) the difference between Sv/Vv of nuclei very sensitively and specifically marks the ER status in malignant tissue (overall efficiency = 80%, p < 0.01), and b) the difference between A, Sv/Vv and Nv marks the concordant ER and PR status with identical overall efficiency. Minimal individual differences in size, surface structure and shape, observed between nuclei of malignant epithelium of positive concordant ER and PR status and nuclei of normal epithelium demonstrated that the highest morphological similarity is associated with biochemical similarity of cells exposed to the identical media of steroid hormones.