Effectiveness of oral health interventions among children and adolescents with mental disorders: a systematic review.

BACKGROUND: The rising percentage of children and adolescents experiencing mental disorders brought attention to the emerging opportunities for proactive oral health interventions in this population. Currently, existing guidelines focus mainly on oral health in general practice and on adults residing in care homes. This report aims to provide a broad overview of the effectiveness of oral health interventions for children and adolescents with mental disorders. METHOD: This review followed the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses 2020) statement. The initial electronic search yielded a total of 3710 articles. The search identified 2354 potential papers after removing duplicates and 2301 articles were excluded by title and abstract. The full texts of the remaining 53 articles and nine articles from the citation searching were screened and 15 articles matched the inclusion criteria. The Mixed-Method Appraisal Tool (MMAT) was used for quality appraisal. RESULTS: The thematic analysis resulted in four main themes which were educational intervention, physical intervention, clinical intervention, and a combination of both educational and clinical intervention. CONCLUSION: We presented the findings in a narrative synthesis with the primary outcomes which served as answers to our main research question that prompted this systematic review.

Career Satisfaction of Malaysian Dentists With Expanded Roles at a Specialist Clinic.

OBJECTIVES: Public dentists interested in postgraduate studies were required to complete clinical attachments at the Malaysian Ministry of Health (MOH) Dental Specialist Clinic (DSC). This cross-sectional quantitative study aimed to explore career satisfaction (CS) and barriers perceived by Malaysian dentists at Malaysia's MOH DSC. METHODS: A total of 208 dentists from DSC nationwide completed an online questionnaire in June 2022. Demographic data and information on dentists' expanded roles were retrieved. Responses on dentists' satisfaction and perceived barriers were collected using a 5-point ordinal scale. Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to compare the mean rank differences for CS. Factors influencing CS were analysed using multiple logistic regression (MLR) (P < .05). RESULTS: The mean age of the respondents was 32.68 ± 2.48 years. Almost half (49.0%) of the respondents were attached to a non-hospital-based clinic. The majority (72.0%) of them were permanently attached to the DSC. About half of the dentists (51.0%) strongly agreed that they received no financial incentives for their expanded role at the MOH DSC. Dentists attached at a non-hospital-based clinic (P = .046), working with more than 15 years of experience (P = .013), and having 12 to 18 months' duration of attachment (P = .014) were more satisfied. MLR analysis revealed that non-Malay respondents (odds ratio [OR], 1.54; P = .035) and those who applied for scholarships more than 3 times (OR, 1.85; P = .050) were more satisfied. In contrast, more than 19 months at the DSC decreased CS (OR, 0.44; P = .029). CONCLUSIONS: Despite having a similar organisational structure, DSC dentists had different satisfaction levels. Dentists' ethnicity, duration of attachment, and frequency of applying for scholarships influenced their CS. Future career advancement plans in the MOH should consider these important influencing factors to ensure the delivery of quality health care from their personnel.