Spectrum, Spring 1991

Spectrum was a newsletter for students, faculty, staff and alumni of the Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine, published from 1983-1992

Drug prescription support in dental clinics through drug corpus mining

The rapid increase in the volume and variety of data poses a challenge to safe drug prescription for the dentist. The increasing number of patients that take multiple drugs further exerts pressure on the dentist to make the right decision at point-of-care. Hence, a robust decision support system will enable dentists to make decisions on drug prescription quickly and accurately. Based on the assumption that similar drug pairs have a higher similarity ratio, this paper suggests an innovative approach to obtain the similarity ratio between the drug that the dentist is going to prescribe and the drug that the patient is currently taking. We conducted experiments to obtain the similarity ratios of both positive and negative drug pairs, by using feature vectors generated from term similarities and word embeddings of biomedical text corpus. This model can be easily adapted and implemented for use in a dental clinic to assist the dentist in deciding if a drug is suitable for prescription, taking into consideration the medical profile of the patients. Experimental evaluation of our model’s association of the similarity ratio between two drugs yielded a superior F score of 89%. Hence, such an approach, when integrated within the clinical work flow, will reduce prescription errors and thereby increase the health outcomes of patients

Drug prescription support in dental clinics through drug corpus mining

The rapid increase in the volume and variety of data poses a challenge to safe drug prescription for the dentist. The increasing number of patients that take multiple drugs further exerts pressure on the dentist to make the right decision at point-of-care. Hence, a robust decision support system will enable dentists to make decisions on drug prescription quickly and accurately. Based on the assumption that similar drug pairs have a higher similarity ratio, this paper suggests an innovative approach to obtain the similarity ratio between the drug that the dentist is going to prescribe and the drug that the patient is currently taking. We conducted experiments to obtain the similarity ratios of both positive and negative drug pairs, by using feature vectors generated from term similarities and word embeddings of biomedical text corpus. This model can be easily adapted and implemented for use in a dental clinic to assist the dentist in deciding if a drug is suitable for prescription, taking into consideration the medical profile of the patients. Experimental evaluation of our model’s association of the similarity ratio between two drugs yielded a superior F score of 89%. Hence, such an approach, when integrated within the clinical work flow, will reduce prescription errors and thereby increase the health outcomes of patients

To fill or not to fill: a qualitative cross-country study on dentists' decisions in managing non-cavitated proximal caries lesions

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to identify barriers and enablers for dentists managing non-cavitated proximal caries lesions using non- or micro-invasive (NI/MI) approaches rather than invasive and restorative methods in New Zealand, Germany and the USA. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews were conducted, focusing on non-cavitated proximal caries lesions (radiographically confined to enamel or the outer dentine). Twelve dentists from New Zealand, 12 from Germany and 20 from the state of Michigan (USA) were interviewed. Convenience and snowball sampling were used for participant recruitment. A diverse sample of dentists was recruited. Interviews were conducted by telephone, using an interview schedule based on the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF). RESULTS: The following barriers to managing lesions non- or micro-invasively were identified: patients' lacking adherence to oral hygiene instructions or high-caries risk, financial pressures and a lack of reimbursement for NI/MI, unsupportive colleagues and practice leaders, not undertaking professional development and basing treatment on what had been learned during training, and a sense of anticipated regret (anxiety about not restoring a proximal lesion in its early stages before it progressed). The following enablers were identified: the professional belief that remineralisation can occur in early non-cavitated proximal lesions and that these lesions can be arrested, the understanding that placing restorations weakens the tooth and inflicts a cycle of re-restoration, having up-to-date information and supportive colleagues and work environments, working as part of a team of competent and skilled dental practitioners who perform NI/MI (such as cleaning or scaling), having the necessary resources, undertaking ongoing professional development and continued education, maintaining membership of professional groups and a sense of professional and personal satisfaction from working in the patient's best interest. Financial aspects were more commonly mentioned by the German and American participants, while continuing education was more of a focus for the New Zealand participants. CONCLUSIONS: Decisions on managing non-cavitated proximal lesions were influenced by numerous factors, some of which could be targeted by interventions for implementing evidence-based management strategies in practice

Patients' experiences and clinicians' views of dental implant treatment : a qualitative study

PhD ThesisImplants have a significant clinical research evidence base which supports positive treatment outcomes for patients; however, the growing provision of implant restoration has been also accompanied by a rising number of complaints relating to dissatisfaction with treatment outcomes (RCS, 2014). This thesis presents the findings of qualitative studies which set out to investigate, and subsequently understand, patients’ experiences and clinicians’ views of dental implant provision. Semi-structured interviews with patients at different stages of dental implant treatment (n=38 interviews) and secondary care implant clinicians (n=8) were undertaken. Data collection and analysis followed the principles of thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2006). While implant restorations are seen as a durable tooth substitute, this research highlighted how patients saw implants as a ‘cure’ for tooth loss. Inherent strength, stability and permanency from the material ‘titanium’; the position ‘rooted within the bone’ and the uniqueness of the technique ‘recent technology’ all contributed to this view. As a result, the direct and long-term potential of implant prosthesis was often misunderstood by inadequately recognising the resources required for regular professional and home care of the implant restoration to ensure longevity. Patients also overestimated the unpleasantness of implant surgery and experienced unanticipated challenges during healing. This was accompanied by uncertainty about maintaining oral hygiene, which continued with both the transitional and final restoration. Clinicians experienced difficulty in communicating information to patients who held high expectations relating to implant provision. Additionally, clinicians’ obligation to negotiate patients’ treatment needs and prioritise between patients places some restrictions on fully shared decision making. Several suggestions were made by clinicians and patients to improve the experience of the implant treatment pathway. These included expanding the role of the clinical support team, using technology and ensuring effective, targeted and timely giving of information according to the patient’s individual circumstances and their stage of treatment.Libyan high education ministry, Libya, and the University of Garyounis, Benghazi