Awareness of Oral Submucous Fibrosis among the Quid-Chewing South-Asian Expatriates in the United Arab Emirates.

Oral submucous fibrosis (OSF) is a chronic disorder prevalent in South and Southeast Asia and is mainly related to the habit of chewing betel quid. Although there are numerous South-Asian studies about OSF, there is no study that evaluates the awareness of OSF among expatriate populations of South-Asian origin. Evaluated the awareness of OSF among South-Asian expatriate patients reporting to a dental hospital in Sharjah. Prevalidated questionnaires were given to 150 expatriate patients of South-Asian origin with quid-chewing habit reporting to the teaching clinics of a dental hospital in the United Arab Emirates. Among the 150 patients, 103 responded to the questionnaire. Among the 103 respondents, 11.65% were aware of OSF. Respondents living in shared residency and labor camps had significantly (P = 0.43) lower awareness of OSF compared to respondents living with their families. The results of our study show that the awareness of OSF is lower among the respondents living in labor camps and shared residencies. The younger respondents had more awareness of OSMF and were more likely to quit the quid-chewing habit.

Bone Grafts in Dental Implant Management: A Narrative Review.

Successful implant dentistry can be directly related to the quality and quantity of bone at the recipient site of the implant. Over the years, bone grafts have been used for the treatment of various osseous defects. Due to the widespread acceptance of dental implants, interest in bone reconstruction for the oral cavity has increased dramatically over the past decade. Many patients who request implant rehabilitation require ancillary procedures to increase the quantity and quality of the recipient's bone. The internal architecture of the bone is generally described in terms of quality of the bone, which in turn reflects the strength (degree of compactness) of the bone. This is considered a crucial factor about the available bone at the edentulous site while planing about the design of the planned implant, surgical approach, healing time, and the initial progressive bone loading during the prosthetic reconstruction. Atrophy of the alveolar processes is expressed as a reduction of height and width. Databases were electronically searched up to April 2019 to identify human bone graft studies to provide contemporary and comprehensive information about the various bone grafts used in dental implant management.

Assessment of Oral-Systemic Disease Association amongst Dental Patients: A Retrospective Panoramic Radiographic Study.

AIM: The association between oral health and overall health has been broadly documented in the past few years and is supported by a rapidly growing body of evidence. Interventional studies were able to establish a linkage between dental intervention and its influence on medical situations. This study tried to determine whether the overall health of a subject may be correlated to radiographically noticeable dental pathology. There was a need to test a null theory of whether subjects having good oral health state had fewer systemic illnesses. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a retrospective panoramic radiographic study of 400 radiographs of 200 women and 200 men. Subjects were divided into a control group of subjects with no medical history, and a second group with patients who had presented with a medical history. A panoramic radiograph was observed for periapical radiolucency, caries, remaining teeth, remaining root, horizontal, and vertical bone loss. The oral index (OI) was calculated and correlated with the medical status of the patient. RESULTS: Men demonstrated a higher incidence of horizontal bone loss and missing teeth. On the contrary, women showed higher incidences of vertical bone loss, compromised periapical index, and a greater number of root canal treated teeth. Patients having a medical history had a significant percentage of the increased number of periapical lesions, tooth loss, poor quality root canal treatment, and periapical index. Patients with both diabetes mellitus (DM) and hypertension [HTN (61.3%)], anemia (75%), prostate disease (100%), and disabilities such as hearing impairment and mental retardation (100%) had significantly higher percentages of the bad OI. CONCLUSION: Most patients with medical history demonstrated a significantly poor OI than those with no medical history. The present research contributes to scientific works by probing the relationship between oral health and the overall well-being. Increasing the sample size and interventional studies are needed as an extension of the current research. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Panoramic radiograph is commonly practiced as a screening radiograph in a dental setup. By calculating an OI of each patient based on certain dental conditions, it can help in revealing the burden of medical diseases on oral health and vice versa.

Knowledge, attitude, and practice of institutional dental professionals regarding management of patients taking oral antithrombotic medications.

OBJECTIVES: Nowadays, there is an increasing number of patients prescribed regular antithrombotics. With these long-term medications, complications like postoperative bleeding are extremely important. Despite available guidelines on this issue, disparities in approach have been noticed. The current study aimed to explore the knowledge, attitude, and practice of dental professionals associated with a dental school in Saudi Arabia regarding the management of patients with oral antithrombotic medications. METHOD AND MATERIALS: A cross-sectional study was conducted on institutional-based dental professionals in Saudi Arabia. Fifty-six subjects, including 12 interns, 20 demonstrators, and 24 faculty members were included in the study. A modified semistructured questionnaire comprising 20 questions was used to gather respondents' knowledge, attitude, and practice related to oral antithrombotic medications. The chi-square test was applied for computing inferential statistics. Spearman correlation coefficient was performed for significant variables. RESULTS: The faculty members had comparable knowledge (P = .010) as well as practice (P = .001) levels, and significantly outscored the other two groups. The interns displayed a significantly higher knowledge score over the demonstrators, whereas the reverse scenario was seen for practice scores. Interestingly, participants were frequently found to be significantly overestimating the bleeding risk for procedures falling into the "no risk" category. A significantly positive correlation regarding the professional level could be shown in all domains. CONCLUSION: Professionals need to regularly update about novel anticoagulants, and should strictly comply with the established practice guidelines, thus improving the quality, safety, and value of dental health care.