Rubber Dam Isolation Survey among Dental Students in Al-Qassim University and How to Promote its Usage.

Rubber dam isolation is crucial in dentistry, but its use varies among dental students. There is a need to assess their awareness, attitudes, and practices and find ways to promote its usage. To evaluate dental students' knowledge and practices regarding rubber dam isolation and identify barriers to its use. The study employed a cross-sectional design to assess dental students' knowledge and practices regarding rubber dam isolation. Data were collected from dental students at Al-Qassim University during the period from January to March 2023. A convenience sampling method was used, involving students from the third, fourth, and fifth academic years, with a total of 62 questionnaires distributed. A pre-tested questionnaire consisting of 11 closed-ended questions was used to collect data, and the analysis was performed using SPSS version 21, with results presented through descriptive statistics. Only 21% always used rubber dam for amalgam restorations, while 53.2% used it for composite restorations. Over 70% believed their education on rubber dam was adequate. The main barriers were difficulty (40.3%) and time constraints (53.2%). About 68% felt rubber dam should be mandatory for composite treatments. Dental students need more education and training to bridge the gap between knowledge and practice concerning rubber dam isolation. Implementing it can enhance the quality of dental care.

Integrating digital smile design into restorative Dentistry: A narrative review of the applications and benefits.

The primary goal of esthetic treatment is to ensure patient satisfaction and meet their expectations of improving their facial esthetics and smile. However, some patients may have doubts regarding the irreversible nature of the treatment. In such cases, the Digital Smile Designing (DSD) technique can be employed to educate and motivate patients. DSD is a technical tool that allows digital designing and modification of a patient's smile, enabling them to visualize the potential outcomes before the actual treatment begins. This technique facilitates visual communication and patient involvement in the smile design process, leading to predictable treatment results and higher acceptance rates. This article provides an overview of DSD in esthetic dental practice and discusses its applications, advantages, limitations, and future possibilities.

Awareness of possible complications associated with direct composite restorations: A multinational survey among dentists from 13 countries with meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVES: Resin-based composites (RBCs) evolved into favoured materials for teeth restorations, marking a significant change in dental practice. Despite many advantages, RBCs exhibit various limitations in their physical and chemical properties. Therefore, we assessed the dentists' awareness of possible complications after direct composite restorations and their opinions about this material. METHODS: The online questionnaire was created in English in May 2023. A 16-item survey was dedicated to general dentists and specialists. The first section included four questions related to demographic characteristics. The second section comprised twelve questions and focused on awareness of potential side effects of composite restorations, the most crucial advantages and disadvantages of composite resins, and the frequency of experienced clinical complications after the application of composite materials. RESULTS: A total of 1830 dentists from 13 countries took part in the survey. Dentists most often declared awareness of low adhesion to the dentine (77.5 %) and, most rarely, solubility in oral fluids (42.6 %). Aesthetics was identified as the main advantage of composite fillings (79 %), followed by the possibility of repair (59 %) and adhesion to enamel (57 %). Polymerisation shrinkage was a major disadvantage for most countries (70 % overall). Analysing the declared potential clinical complications for all countries, statistically significant findings were obtained for marginal discolouration (OR=2.982, 95 % CI: 1.321-6.730, p-value=0.009) and borderline significance for secondary caries (OR=1.814, 95 % CI: 0.964-3.415, p-value=0.065). CONCLUSIONS: Dentists value aesthetics and repairability but are aware of shrinkage and experience discolouration. The issue of toxicity and solubility seems to be the least known to dentists. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Dentists should use RBCs with critical caution due to possible side effects. Despite the undoubted aesthetics of direct composite restorations, it is necessary to remember potential clinical complications such as marginal discolouration or secondary caries.

The Association Between Economic Status and Religious Identity With Oral Health Disparities and Inequalities Around the World.

INTRODUCTION: The inequalities in oral health remain one of the current issues in the global public health agenda. The number of studies investigating health disparity by religious identity is limited and there is currently no such report relating to oral health. Similarly, there is compelling evidence for oral health disparities between socioeconomic statuses, education levels, and ethnic groups. This ecological study aimed to explore the disparity in oral health-related outcomes between Muslim and non-Muslim countries and country income status. METHODS: Publicly available data related to oral health measures, country income status, and membership in the Organization of Islamic countries were used. Five oral health-related measures were examined: caries experience (decayed, missing, and filled teeth (DMFT)), percentage of the population with no periodontal disease, and disability-adjusted life years (DALY) attributed to oral conditions, and mouth and oropharynx cancer. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to compare the oral health parameters by country income status and simple linear regression was used to compare the parameters between the non-member countries (n-MC) and member countries (MC). For the significant parameters, adjusted coefficients were obtained using multiple linear regression. RESULTS: From 170 countries included, 53 (31%) were MC and 117 (69%) were n-MC. Analysis showed that the mean DMFT in adults aged 35-44 years was significantly higher in the n-MC compared to MC after adjusting for country income status (p<0.05) but the latter was the stronger explanatory predictor of the outcome. The strength of the effect of country membership classification (standardized coefficient ß: DMFT35-44-year-old = -0.16) was smaller than country income status (ß = -0.60) in the multiple regression. CONCLUSION: There is significant but weak evidence from the available data to support the claim that economic status and religion contribute to oral health disparity.

Solar Power Prediction Using Dual Stream CNN-LSTM Architecture.

The integration of solar energy with a power system brings great economic and environmental benefits. However, the high penetration of solar power is challenging due to the operation and planning of the existing power system owing to the intermittence and randomicity of solar power generation. Achieving accurate predictions for power generation is important to provide high-quality electric energy for end-users. Therefore, in this paper, we introduce a deep learning-based dual-stream convolutional neural network (CNN) and long short-term nemory (LSTM) network followed by a self-attention mechanism network (DSCLANet). Here, CNN is used to learn spatial patterns and LSTM is incorporated for temporal feature extraction. The output spatial and temporal feature vectors are then fused, followed by a self-attention mechanism to select optimal features for further processing. Finally, fully connected layers are incorporated for short-term solar power prediction. The performance of DSCLANet is evaluated on DKASC Alice Spring solar datasets, and it reduces the error rate up to 0.0136 MSE, 0.0304 MAE, and 0.0458 RMSE compared to recent state-of-the-art methods.

Microleakage Assessment of Different Preparation Techniques and Pit and Fissure Sealants in Permanent Molars.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to evaluate the predisposition of microleakage in permanent molar teeth following different preparation techniques for pits and fissure sealants. METHODS: In this cross-sectional analytical study, a dye penetration method was employed to evaluate microleakage in dental restorations. A total of 104 extracted molars were randomly assigned into two groups and further subdivided into two subgroups based on a class of sealant (filled/unfilled resin) containing 26 teeth each. Teeth in one group were prepared by a conventional method using pumice and acid etching with 37% phosphoric acid, and teeth in the other group were prepared with a 1/4-round carbide bur in a low-speed handpiece and then acid etched. In each group, 26 teeth were sealed with a filled sealant, and 26 teeth with an unfilled sealant. The chi-square test was used for the comparison of microleakage between the groups. RESULTS: Unfilled sealants prepared with bur preparation showed the lowest degree of microleakage. The greater number of teeth (17) showed no microleakage in the group of teeth prepared using the bur preparation technique. Furthermore, in dye penetration analysis, the subgroup of teeth that were filled with unfilled sealants showed a greater number of teeth (57.6%), with zero penetration, and the dye penetration scores were statistically significant among the groups with different preparation techniques (p=0.002). CONCLUSION: Teeth whose pits and fissures were prepared through 1/4 carbide bur and filled with unfilled pits and fissure sealants show less microleakage than those prepared with the conventional method and filled with filled sealants. Therefore, the choice of surface preparation technique for pit and fissure sealants can influence the effectiveness of the sealant in preventing microleakage.