Assessment of Knowledge about Ergonomics and Determining Musculoskeletal Disorders in Dentists: An Original Research.

BACKGROUND: Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are commonly occurring disorders nowadays. The present study was conducted with the aim of determining MSDs in dentists and to assess knowledge about ergonomics. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This questionnaire study was conducted among 460 dental professionals of different age groups. Parameters such as posture of dentists, working alone or with an assistant, and number of breaks were recorded. Type of MSDs and the type and effectiveness were recorded. RESULTS: BDS students were seventy, interns were 112, general dentists were 186, and specialists were 92. Year of practice was <5 years in 215, 5-10 years in 70, 10-20 years in 35, and >20 years in 140 students. Fourteen percent of students, 18% interns, 45% general practitioners, and 32% of specialists had a prevalence of MSD. Most common MSDs in students were upper back pain seen in 6%, in interns were upper back pain seen in 8%, in general practitioners were shoulder pain seen in 21%, and in specialists were hand/wrist pain seen in 10%. Forty-five percent of students, 67% interns, 72% general dentists, and 80% of specialists had idea about ergonomics. Seventy-four percent of students, 80% of interns, 83% of general dentists, and 87% of specialists think that ergonomics may improve performance. Sitting position was preferred seen in 53% of students, 58% of interns, 65% general dentists, and 60% of specialists. Forty-five percent of students, 47% of interns, 56% of general dentists, and 52% of specialists perform physical activity during work. The difference was found to be statistically significant (P < 0.05). Seventy-nine percent of students, 83% of interns, 86% of general dentists, and 88% of specialists show prolong sitting or standing. CONCLUSION: Authors found that all prefer to apply ergonomic in clinical practice. There is a lack of knowledge among BDS students and interns about ergonomics.

Reliability of Caries Assessment Spectrum and Treatment Tool in the Indian Subcontinent.

BACKGROUND: Accurate diagnosis, reporting of caries and its consequences, is absolute mandate for planning an efficient, effective community health-care program. Literature reports indicate shortcomings of existing caries assessment tools. Caries assessment spectrum and treatment (CAST) is novice caries quantification tool, which quantifies the entire spectrum of carious lesions. This tool records give an insight into the status of restorations along with various progressive developmental stages of dental caries. This instrument has been validated for face, content, and construct by an expert group, and currently, its usage is on the rise. AIM: The aim of this study was to report the reliability of this assessment tool with regard to the primary and permanent dentition of school children and adults belonging to a south Indian district. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was carried out by two trained and calibrated examiners by examining 192 school children in the age-group between 4 and 6 years and 262 adults between 19 and 69 years. The study sample was reexamined by the same examiners after a gap of 4 weeks. The κ coefficient values and percent of agreement were calculated for the data recorded from the study subjects. RESULTS: The analyzed data showed moderate intra-examiner and inter-examiner reproducibility for either of the dentition as revealed by κ coefficient values (0.80-0.89). Inter- or intra-examiner agreement was found to be substantial to almost perfect (percent agreement above 90%) with respect to both the age-groups. CONCLUSION: The CAST tool seems quite promising to be the future for quantifying caries spectrum for a community or an individual.

Prevalence of Dental Anxiety Level in 6- to 12-Year- Old South Indian Children.

BACKGROUND: Dental anxiety is one of the prime reasons for discouraging children to receive dental treatment. Measurement of the dental anxiety is very useful to know the prevalence level among 6- to 12-year-old children. Thus, the aim of the study was to determine the dental anxiety among 6- to 12-year-old children using Modified Dental Anxiety Scale (MDAS) score. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 400 south Indian children in the age group of 6-12 years who had visited Dental College and Hospital were recruited in the study. Dental anxiety was measured before dental treatment using MDAS. Statistical analysis was performed using Wilcoxon signed rank test. RESULTS: Of the 400 children, 240 (61.5%) had severe dental anxiety, 92 (23%) had mild anxiety, and 78 (17%) had no anxiety. Females had higher anxiety level compared to males. Many study subjects answered that local anesthesia (LA) injection was considered most fearful. Dental anxiety was highest in smaller age groups. CONCLUSION: In our research, high percentage of children had dental anxiety, so counseling before dental visits is very important to reduce the dental anxiety among these 6- to 12-year-old children.

Esthetic Clasp Cast Partial Denture.

Denture esthetics as defined by Glossary of prosthodontics terms the effect produced by a dental prosthesis that affects the beauty and attractiveness of the person. [1] Removable partial dentures (RPDs) are the widely accepted and treatment of choice for most cases as it is both effective and affordable. Partially edentulous treatment planning includes both esthetics and masticatory function. A prosthesis that is highly esthetic will improve patient's motivation and acceptance. It is a very wrong notion to expect that patients will tolerate unesthetic partial dentures because good masticatory capability has been achieved. Esthetics plays a vital role in the success of partial dentures, and the length and mobility of the patient's lips play a significant role in achieving it. [2] Patients with short lips or highly mobile lips pose problems as esthetics are compromised because most clasp arms, denture borders, and other components will show when the patient smiles or speaks. [3] RPDs can easily look artificial; hence, special emphasis should aim toward restoring function, phonetics, esthetics with a long-term benefits which requires meticulous attention during fabrication. This case reports is an esthetic clasp designed for a cast partial denture for a young girl for esthetic and function.

Dawn of a New Age Fissure Sealant? A Study Evaluating the Clinical Performance of Embrace WetBond and ART Sealants: Results from a Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial.

OBJECTIVES: The main purpose of this article is to evaluate the clinical performance of atraumatic restorative treatment (ART) sealant versus Embrace WetBond sealant in terms of retention and fissure caries prevention among a section of school children in the southern Indian state of Karnataka (ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02716558). MATERIALS AND METHODS: After obtaining consent from the parents and screening the children against the inclusion cum exclusion criteria, 90 school children whose mandibular first molars were caries free and with a well-defined pit and fissure system were recruited for this spilt mouth trial. The respective molars were allocated either to the ART sealant or the embrace group after the randomization process. The sealants were applied according to the manufacturer's instructions and followed up at the end of 3rd, 6th, and 12th month, respectively. The outcome measures assessed were the retention and the caries preventive effects of the materials. RESULTS: At the end of the 6th month, about one-fourth of the sealants in either group remained totally intact, without evidence of caries. No significant differences were seen between the sealants either in terms of retention or caries preventive benefits at the end of 12 months. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: The chi-squared test was used to check differences in proportions. The significance value was set at <0.05. Kappa test was performed to assess the intraexaminer reproducibility with respect to retention and caries status. CONCLUSION: The moisture-tolerant resin sealant could not replicate the physical properties usually associated with conventional resin sealants. The usage of ART sealants was deemed to be less cumbersome in an outreach setting as observed in this trial.

Molecular Detection of Porphyromonas gingivalis in Chronic Periodontitis Patients.

AIM: In the current study, Porphyromonas gingivalis was identified in chronic periodontitis patients and healthy subjects by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and its presence correlated with the severity of clinical periodontal parameters. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Subgingival plaque samples were collected with sterile curette and subjected to deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) extraction and subsequent PCR for detection of P. gingivalis. RESULTS: Porphyromonas gingivalis was detected in 60% of patients of group II (pocket depth up to 5 mm), and in 93.33% of patients of group III (pocket depth more than 5 mm). One periodontally healthy subject in group I (probing depth < 3 mm) showed the presence of P. gingivalis. CONCLUSION: Detection frequency of bacterium increased significantly with increase in probing pocket depth (PPD), loss of attachment (LOA), and gingival index (GI). CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Porphyromonas gingivalis is strongly associated with chronic periodontitis and its detection frequency positively correlates with the severity of periodontal destruction.

Knowledge Analysis of Pit and Fissure Sealants among the Dental Students of South India.

AIM: This study aimed to assess the level of knowledge and attitudes for pit and fissure sealants among undergraduate Indian dental students. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A modified questionnaire consisting of 24 items was distributed to 280 undergraduate dental students comprising males and females of different years at MNR Dental College, Sangareddy, India. Descriptive statistics and Chi-square/Fisher's exact tests were used for statistical analysis. The data were computationally tested using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 20, IBM SPSS Statistics software for Windows, Armonk, NY, USA. RESULTS: With the response rate at 100%, most of the respondents, i.e., 70.4%, were females and the remaining 29.6% were male. Regarding the level of study, 20.8% were in 3rd year, 43.8% in the 4th year, and 16.8% were in 5th year (internship). The respondents showed a reasonable level of knowledge about sealants, mostly being good with the theoretical concepts of the sealants. On the other hand, respondents showed insufficient knowledge about sealants in the clinical practice. CONCLUSION: Although a high proportion of undergraduate dental students showed adequate knowledge about dental sealants, there is a lag in putting that knowledge into work during the clinical practice. These findings suggest an urgent need of dental schools to include and/or update their curriculum regarding fissure sealants to reflect modern dental education that concentrates on evidence-based practice in pediatric dentistry and improve the dental health among the future generations by reducing the incidence of caries.

Effect of micro-additions of carbon nanotubes to polymethylmethacrylate on reduction in polymerization shrinkage.

PURPOSE: Carbon nanotubes are used in dentistry, although there are no adequate scientific data to support their use in acrylic resins. The polymerization shrinkage that occurs with polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) resins is well known. This study compared the polymerization shrinkage of denture base acrylic resin with and without micro-additions of carbon nanotubes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Two materials were used, PMMA resin and multiwalled carbon nanotubes. Four groups were established of 10 specimens each according to the weight percent of carbon nanotubes dispersed and disintegrated in the monomer: group I (0.5% of carbon nanotubes in monomer), II (0.25%), III (0.125%), and IV (control group, 0%). The polymerization shrinkage of acrylic resin for each group was evaluated based on the distance between the reference points in wax (before polymerization) and in acrylic (after polymerization), measured using a traveling microscope. The data were submitted to Kruskal-Wallis and one-way ANOVA for comparison among the groups, and the results were statistically analyzed. RESULTS: The Kruskal-Wallis test detected that the different percentages of carbon nanotubes incorporated in the monomer showed significant differences, and the mean ranks of polymerization shrinkage (%) showed differences among all the groups (group IV = 0.126, III = 0.037, II = 0.017, I = 0.006). Hence, the order of severity of polymerization shrinkage was 0% > 0.125% > 0.25% > 0.5% for the amount of carbon nanotubes incorporated in methylmethacrylate. CONCLUSION: The present study was done to prove polymerization shrinkage in PMMA resins with micro-additions of carbon nanotubes. The results clearly show reduction in polymerization shrinkage when carbon nanotubes are incorporated into the PMMA resin.