Two decades of ART: improving on success through further research

Since the introduction of the Atraumatic Restorative Treatment (ART) approach over twenty years ago, more than 190 research publications have appeared. The last research agenda defining research priorities for ART was published in 1999. The objective of the present work was to review existing research in the context of future research priorities for ART. MATERIAL AND METHODS: An internet survey was conducted amongst those who had published on ART or were known to be working on the ART approach, to solicit their views as to areas of future ART research. Three broad categories were defined, namely: 1. Basic and laboratory research; 2. Clinical research, and, 3. Community, Public Health, Health Services Research. RESULTS: A 31% response rate was achieved. The study identified a number of new areas of research as well as areas where additional research is required. These are expressed as recommendations for future ART research. CONCLUSIONS: The ART approach is based on a robust, reliable and ever-growing evidence base concerning its clinical applications which indicates that it is a reliable and quality treatment approach. In common with all other oral health care procedures, targeted applied research is required to improve the oral health care offered

Impact of Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccination on postoperative mortality in patients with perioperative SARS-CoV-2 infection

There is little evidence around the potentially protective role of previous Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccination on postoperative mortality in patients with perioperative SARS-CoV-2 vaccination. Prior BCG vaccination did not protect SARS-CoV-2 infected patients against postoperative pulmonary complications and 30-day mortality

FGF receptor genes and breast cancer susceptibility: results from the Breast Cancer Association Consortium.

BACKGROUND: Breast cancer is one of the most common malignancies in women. Genome-wide association studies have identified FGFR2 as a breast cancer susceptibility gene. Common variation in other fibroblast growth factor (FGF) receptors might also modify risk. We tested this hypothesis by studying genotyped single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and imputed SNPs in FGFR1, FGFR3, FGFR4 and FGFRL1 in the Breast Cancer Association Consortium. METHODS: Data were combined from 49 studies, including 53 835 cases and 50 156 controls, of which 89 050 (46 450 cases and 42 600 controls) were of European ancestry, 12 893 (6269 cases and 6624 controls) of Asian and 2048 (1116 cases and 932 controls) of African ancestry. Associations with risk of breast cancer, overall and by disease sub-type, were assessed using unconditional logistic regression. RESULTS: Little evidence of association with breast cancer risk was observed for SNPs in the FGF receptor genes. The strongest evidence in European women was for rs743682 in FGFR3; the estimated per-allele odds ratio was 1.05 (95% confidence interval=1.02-1.09, P=0.0020), which is substantially lower than that observed for SNPs in FGFR2. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that common variants in the other FGF receptors are not associated with risk of breast cancer to the degree observed for FGFR2

Influence of Chemical Degradation and Toothbrushing on Surface of Composites

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of chemical degradation media associated with brushing on surface roughness (Ra) and Knoop microhardness (KHN) analyses of different composites. Materials and methods: Eighty specimens were prepared for each composite: GrandioSO (Voco), Amaris (Voco), Filtek Supreme (3M ESPE), Filtek LS (3M ESPE). The specimens were divided into four groups according to the immersion in chemical degradation media for 7 days: artificial saliva (control), heptane, 0.02 M citric acid, 70% ethanol. The surface of specimens was submitted to 10950 brushing cycles (200 gm load) in an automatic toothbrushing machine with abrasive slurry. Surface roughness and microhardness measurements were obtained at baseline, after immersion in chemical degradation media and after brushing. Data were submitted to three-way repeated measures ANOVA and Tukey’s test (p < 0.05). Results: The KHN means for composites were: Grandio (153.5± 35.9)a, Filtek Supreme (87.0 ± 24.9)b, Amaris (64.5 ± 24.5)c, LS (69.0 ± 15.3)c; for storage media: artificial saliva (97.3 ± 46.7)a, ethanol (93.3 ± 49.9)a, citric acid (95.8 ± 42.1)a, heptane (87.6 ± 36.7)b; and after treatments: after chemical degradation (104.8 ± 49.7)a, baseline (93.8 ± 42.5)b, after brushing (81.9 ± 36.5)c. The Ra results for composites were: LS (0.15 ± 0.25)a, GrandioSO (0.19 ± 0.24)ab, Filtek Supreme (0.20 ± 0.22)ab, Amaris (0.23 ± 0.37)b; for storage media: artificial saliva (0.18 ± 0.31)a, heptane (0.18 ± 0.25)a, ethanol (0.20 ± 0.26)a, citric acid (0.21 ± 0.28)a, and after treatments: brushing (0.11 ± 0.14)a, after chemical degradation (0.23 ± 0.32)b, baseline (0.24 ± 0.32)b. Conclusion: Brushing after chemical degradation reduced surface roughness values. In general, chemical degradation did not affect composites roughness, but microhardness was significantly reduced. Heptane produced the biggest reduction in composites microhardness. Clinical relevance: The food-simulating solutions and brushing simulating alter the composites properties, and these alterations are material-dependent.Department of Restorative Dentistry Institute of Science and Technology Universidade Estadual PaulistaDepartment of Restorative Dentistry Institute of Science and Technology Universidade Estadual Paulist