Dental plaque disclosure as an auxiliary method for infants' oral hygiene.

AIM: This was to evaluate the effectiveness of plaque disclosure as an auxiliary method for early childhoods' oral hygiene. METHODS: The study was performed with 20 mothers and their children (aged 6-36 months), members of a preventive programme, which two groups used one of two approaches: conventional oral hygiene/group I (tooth brushing) and plaque disclosure with subsequent oral hygiene/group II (tooth brushing with prior plaque disclosure). Ten mothers started the study in group I and the other 10 in group II, after one month interval they changed to be in the alternate group. Each group consisted of baseline and three additional visits at weekly intervals. The effectiveness of oral hygiene was assessed in a blind fashion by plaque quantity estimation, using the Green Vermilion index for smooth surfaces and the plaque thickness index for occlusal surfaces. Statistical comparisons were performed using repeated measures ANOVA/Fisher's post hoc test and paired t-test (p < 0.05). RESULTS: For smooth and occlusal surfaces at first and second visits, group II recorded significantly lower plaque indices when compared with group I. Additionally, when considering the mean dental plaque index of all visits, group II also presented lower plaque scores than group I. CONCLUSION: Dental plaque disclosure before toothbrushing helps mothers to enhance the effectiveness of early childhood oral hygiene. REGISTRATION NUMBER AND NAME OF TRIAL REGISTRY: RBR-7fyc7g; Avaliação do Treinamento e de Métodos Auxiliares na Efetividade da Escovação Dentária Materna em Bebês. Where the full trial protocol can be accessed: http://www.ensaiosclinicos.gov .

Maturity degree of composts from municipal solid wastes evaluated by differential scanning calorimetry.

Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) in association with chemical analysis was applied to assess the maturity reached by the organic fraction of Municipal Solid Wastes (MSW) subjected to composting processes with manual and fixed aeration and sampled at different composting times. Thermograms showed that the difference in the treatments, i.e., the manual aeration and the fixed aeration, had no relevant effect on the stabilization and maturation of OM in the substrates. Common thermal effects observed were: a low temperature endotherm assigned to dehydration and/or loss of peripheral polysaccharides chains; a medium temperature exotherm assigned to loss of peptidic structures, and a high temperature exotherm assigned to oxydation and polycondensation of aromatic nuclei of the molecule. Results obtained suggest that in the experimental conditions used, a shorter time of composting (about 30 d) appears adequate, in order to limit the extended mineralization of OM, whereas a prolonged composting time (up to 132 d) would produce a compost of poor quality with high ash content and low OM content.