ABSTRACT
AIM: This study was intended to evaluate the knowledge and attitudes regarding infant's oral health care among graduating medical students from Kulasekaram, Tamil Nadu. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional survey research design was employed in this study. Self-administered questionnaire of the validated "Graduating medical students' Knowledge and Attitudes Survey Regarding Infant's oral health care" were utilized to ascertain the baseline levels of knowledge and attitudes of graduating medical students' in Kulasekaram hospital. In this regard, a preliminary study with a convenience sample of 100 medical students was conducted so as to assess the knowledge of infant oral health care among graduating medical students in Kulasekaram. This study, while limited in sample size, benefits the general practitioners as target readers to assess the abnormalities in children at early stages of life. RESULTS: The results of the study revealed that the mean percentage score overall was 65.7%. Only 3.2% of participants obtained a passing score of 80% or greater. Widespread knowledge deficits and poor attitudes among graduating medical students were noted in this study, particularly in the domain of pharmacological management of pain. Positive correlations were observed between the respondents' score and level of education. Further analysis revealed respondents had an inaccurate self-evaluation of their pain management knowledge. CONCLUSION: The results of this study reveal that there is dearth of knowledge and attitudes of graduating medical students' regarding infant oral health care. Educational and quality improvement initiatives in oral health care of infants could enhance medical student's knowledge baseline in the area of oral health care and possibly improve practices.
ABSTRACT
AIMS: Bronchial asthma constitutes important problem worldwide. This chronic lung disease has detrimental effect in the oral cavity like reduction of salivary secretion, change in salivary composition and pH. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study was conducted to compare the prevalence of dental caries in asthmatic children and healthy children, and also to evaluate the correlation between the Streptococcus mutans, Lactobacillus and dental caries in both the groups. RESULTS: In this study, the mean decayed, missing, filled teeth score of children in the study group was (4.53 ± 3.38) higher than the control group (1.51 ± 1.58) (P < 0.01). The S. mutans count of the study group was (59574.47 ± 28510.67) higher than the control group (19777.78 ± 17899.83) P < 0.01. The Lactobacillus count in study group was (43553.19 ± 58776.96) higher than the control group (8843.84 ± 7982.72) P < 0.01. Subjects using inhaled corticosteroids were more prone to develop dental caries than the control group with odds ratio = 6.26 and 95% confidence interval. CONCLUSIONS: The dental caries prevalence increases with the usage of ß2 agonist and corticosteroid inhalers for the treatment of asthma. Thus in asthmatic children, increase in caries prevalence might be due to the drug treatment and not due to the disease by itself. It can be concluded that asthmatic children have a higher prevalence of dental caries than healthy children. Hence, special oral health care is needed for asthmatic children.
ABSTRACT
Oral ulcers are a common symptom in clinical practice. Among various causative factors, different types of ulcers in oral cavity exist. Among this, traumatic ulcerative granuloma with stromal eosinophilia (TUGSE) appears to be quite neglected by the clinicians due to the limited knowledge and awareness. On reviewing with a detailed approach to titles and abstracts of articles eliminating duplicates, 40 relevant articles were considered. Randomized studies, review articles, case reports and abstracts were included while conference papers and posters were excluded. Of importance, TUGSE cases been reported only to a minimal extent in the literature. Lack of its awareness tends to lead clinicians to a misconception of cancer. Thus, this particular lesion needs to be differentiated from other malignant lesions to provide a proper mode of treatment. The present article reviews various aspects of the TUGSE with emphasis on the clinical manifestation, pathogenesis, histological, and immunohistochemical study. This study provides the clinician contemporaries, a humble expansion to their knowledge of the disease, based on the searched literature, enabling a more comprehensive management of this rare occurrence.
