Damaging oral habits.

Oral habits, if persist beyond certain developmental age, can pose great harm to the developing teeth, occlusion, and surrounding oral tissues. In the formative years, almost all children engage in some non-nutritive sucking habits. Clinicians, by proper differential diagnosis and thorough understanding of natural growth and developmental processes, should take a decision for intervening. This article describes case series reports of thumb sucking, finger sucking, and tongue thrusting habits, which have been successfully treated by both removable and fixed orthodontic appliances. The cases shown are ranging from the age group of 9-19 years presenting combination of both mixed and permanent dentition development. All cases show satisfactory correction of habits and stable results.

3D-Geomorphometrics tooth shape analysis in hypodontia.

Assessment of tooth morphology is an important part of the diagnosis and management of hypodontia patients. Several techniques have been used to analyze tooth form in hypodontia patients and these have shown smaller tooth dimensions and anomalous tooth shapes in patients with hypodontia when compared with controls. However, previous studies have mainly used 2D images and provided limited information. In the present study, 3D surface-imaging and statistical shape analysis were used to evaluate tooth form differences between hypodontia and control patients. Eighteen anatomical landmarks were recorded on the clinical crown of the lower left first permanent molar of 3D scanned study models of hypodontia and control subjects. The study sample group comprised of 120 hypodontia patients (40 mild, 40 moderate, and 40 severe hypodontia patients) and 40 age- and sex-matched controls. Procrustes coordinates were utilized to scale and superimpose the landmark coordinate data and then were subjected to principal component analysis (PCA). Subsequently, differences in shape as well as size were tested statistically using allometric analysis and MANOVA. Significant interaction was found between the two factor variables "group" and "sex" (p < 0.002). Overall expected accuracies were 66 and 56% for females and males, respectively, in the cross-validated discriminant-analysis using the first 20 PCs. Hypodontia groups showed significant shape differences compared with the control subjects (p < 0.0001). Significant differences in tooth crown shape were also found between sexes (p < 0.0001) within groups. Furthermore, the degree of variation in tooth form was proportional to the degree of the severity of the hypodontia. Thus, quantitative measurement of tooth shape in hypodontia patients may enhance the multidisciplinary management of those patients.

Finishing and polishing procedures of composite restorations by Saudi dentists: a cross-sectional study.

AIM: The purpose of this study was to assess the knowledge and practices of Saudi dentists in finishing and polishing composite restorations. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional questionnaire-based study was conducted among 306 Saudi dentists from March to April 2012. The collected data were analyzed using Microsoft Excel 2010 program and descriptive statistics were obtained. RESULTS: Completed questionnaires were returned by 191 participants, giving a response rate of 62.4%. 115 (65.7%) respondents are using fine diamond finishing burs for finishing occlusal surfaces, 82 (48%) used fine aluminum oxide finishing discs for finishing facial surfaces, 130 (76%) used diamond finishing strips for finishing interproximal surfaces.121 (63.4%) respondents were of the view that the type of filler content has a major influence in providing color stability to the composite restoration and 137 (72.1%) believed nano-composites provided enhanced color stability. CONCLUSION: Dentists in Saudi Arabia are aware of the benefits of proper finishing and polishing of composite restorations. They however need to use finishing and polishing burs, disks, strips and pastes in a sequential series. Usage of composite polishing pastes and composite surface sealants should be emphasized in undergraduate curriculum.

The applicability of a non-anatomical soft and hard tissue centroid line (S&H centroid) in cephalometrics.

The applicability of a newly introduced non-anatomical soft and hard tissue cephalometric centroid line (S&H centroid) was investigated. The "S&H centroid" line established from 12″ × 14″ lateral cephalometric radiographs of 57 selected adults was used as a base to create a new cephalometric reference line "Centroid-Nasion". The reliability and the use of the newly created "Centroid-Nasion" as a reference line was tested against the conventional "Sella-Nasion" cephalometric reference line to evaluate the sagittal and vertical maxillary and mandibular relationship. Pearson's correlation coefficient, one way ANOVA, and Tukey multiple comparison post Hoc statistical tests were used. The digitization technique was reliable. The "Centroid-Nasion" cephalometric reference line created by utilizing the "S&H centroid" line, was found to be as useful as the conventional "Sella-Nasion" cephalometric plane in establishing and differentiating between sagittal and vertical intermaxillary relationships.