COVID-19 and paediatric dentistry- traversing the challenges. A narrative review.

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has become a major global public health emergency with a focus on preventing the spread of this virus for controlling this crisis. A dental setting is at a high risk of cross infection amid patients and dental practitioner's owing to the spread of infection via droplets suspended in the air by infected symptomatic or asymptomatic subjects. This review article informs about measures which reduce facility risk, manage symptomatic patients and protect personal health care and management with reference to paediatric dentistry.

Traumatic dental injuries in the primary dentition - a review.

Traumatic oral injuries in children involve trauma to the dentition and the surrounding oral soft tissue structures. They usually present as an emergency hence their management poses a challenge globally. Treatment of a tooth fracture, displacement or loss is determined by the type and severity of the injury independent of the etiology. It necessitates the experience for behavior management in a child, ascertaining a patient centered diagnosis, formulating a definitive treatment plan, explanation and consent of oral care to the parents or carer with optimal operator skills. This article provides an overview on the types of oral injury in a child patient, their recognition, diagnosis and management based on credible, practical and readily understandable evidence.

Paediatric dentistry- novel evolvement.

Pediatric dentistry provides primary and comprehensive preventive and therapeutic oral health care for infants and children through adolescence, together with special health care needs. This specialty encompasses a variety of skills, disciplines, procedures and techniques that share a common origin with other dental specialties however these have been modified and reformed to the distinctive requirements of infants, children, adolescents and special health care needs. Disciplines comprise of behavior guidance, care of the medically and developmentally compromised and disabled patient, supervision of orofacial growth and development, caries prevention, sedation, pharmacological management, and hospital dentistry including other traditional fields of dentistry. The skills apply to the ever-changing stages of dental, physical, and psychosocial development for treating conditions and diseases distinctive to growing individuals. Hence with the changing scope of practice it is imperative that the clinician stays updated with the current evidence based trends in practice, collaborates with other disciplines and Imparts quality oral health care tailored to the specific needs of every child.

An in vitro scanning microradiography study of the reduction in hydroxyapatite demineralization rate by statherin-like peptides as a function of increasing N-terminal length.

Enamel demineralization is slowed by salivary proteins that inhibit calcium hydroxyapatite (HA) demineralization. Statherin (StN43), a 43-residue phosphorylated salivary protein with primary sequence similarities to osteopontin and caseins, binds calcium and HA. The aim of this study was to identify the minimum length of the functional domain of the statherin molecule required for cariostatic function by measuring the efficacy of peptides of progressively shorter length (i.e. containing only the N-terminal 21 (StN21), 15 (StN15), 10 (StN10), or 5 (StN5) residues) to reduce HA demineralization rates (RD(HA) ). Porous HA blocks were used as enamel analogues, and were exposed to 0.1 M acetic acid at pH 4 for 120 h, rinsed, and treated with StN21, StN15, StN10, or StN5 peptides (1.88 × 10(-5) M) for 24 h, then demineralized for a further 120 h. The RD(HA) was measured, before and after peptide treatment, using scanning microradiography. Hydroxyapatite blocks treated with StN21 and StN15 demonstrated a 50-60% reduction in the RD(HA) . However, no reduction in the RD(HA) was observed following treatment with either StN10, StN5, or buffer only. The mechanism by which statherin-like peptides reduce RD(HA) may be associated with their binding to HA surfaces. Comparisons with previously published binding energies of statherin to HA also suggest that statherin-like peptides containing 15 N-terminal residues or more, are required for binding, suggesting a link between binding and demineralization reduction.