Knowledge, attitude and practice of ethnomedicine in common oral and dental diseases in patients attending IIUM dental polyclinic

Information from the user of ethnomedicine is required as the baseline data for further research and to conserve local medicine. To identify the association between knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of ethnomedicine in common oral and dental diseases. A cross-sectional descriptive and analytical study was conducted on patients attending IIUM dental clinic within three months. A total of 87 participants aged 18 and above were conveniently selected to answer quantitative questionnaires. The relationship between knowledge, attitude and practice scores was analysed using Spearman correlation coefficient. The participants were Malay, Chinese, Indian and Others with frequency of 49 (56.3%), 28 (32.2%), 4 (4.6%) and 6 (6.9%), respectively. They were 41.4% male and 58.6% female. 97.7% were educated. The participants were knowledgeable in common oral diseases (96.6%). Knowledge of ethnomedicine was correlated with attitude (rho=0.283, p=0.008) and practice (rho=0.251, p= 0.019), while attitude was correlated with practice (rho=0.436, p=0.000). There was a clear pattern of using ethnomedicine to treat oral and dental diseases with significant correlation between KAP. Therefore, further studies on the efficiency and efficacy of the findings described in this study is highly advisable. Keywords: Knowledge; Attitude; Practice; Ethnomedicine; Common Oral and Dental Disease

Analysis of the fatty acid composition of Caulerpa lentillifera using Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry

Caulerpa lentillifera, also known as Sea Grape or Green Caviar is a type of green seaweed from the class of Caurlepacea and species of Lentillifera. They are common seaweed communities in tropical and subtropical waters. They have different biochemical compounds from various seaweedspecies. However, the study onphytochemical components andthe biological activity of C. lentillifera are not fully understood yet. This study was carried out to determine the best extraction solvents and to evaluate the phytocomponent in the n- hexane, Dichloromethane (DCM) and methanol extract of C. lentillifera using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis. C. lentillifera was collected from the coastal area of Sabah, Malaysia. Then, it was subjected for purification, drying and soxhlet extraction process using n- hexane, DCM and methanol. Only fatty acid compound was analysed using a Perkin Elmer Turbo Mass Spectrophotometer. It showed that, methanol is the most efficient solvent as it recorded the highest extraction yield in C. lentillifera. Twenty phytocomponents have been identified from all extracts of C. lentillifera by GC-MS analysis. This analysis discovered the presence of major constituents like palmitic acid, oleic acid, pentadecanoic acid, behenic acid, myristic acid, etc. Many studies have shown that, most of the identified major compounds were proven to exhibit antibacterial, antifungal, anti- inflammatory, antiviral, etc. Thus, it is apparent that C. lentillifera has the potential to be used as seaweed of phytopharmaceutical importance as it contains numerous bioactive compounds

Refractive surprise in post-cataract surgery in post Epi-LASIK patient : a lesson learnt

Post-myopic laser refractive surgery corneal power measurement for intraocular lens power calculation is one of the most challenging issues in cataract surgery. Standard keratometry measurement is likely to be overestimated which could lead to false-low intraocular lens power. As a result, this can lead to hyperopic surprise. Contact lens method is an alternative method which is relatively inexpensive and accessible procedure in many optometry and ophthalmology centres. The contact lens method with optimised equations have been used for this case to obtain an accurate postoperative corneal power

Poster 4 Tips Senyuman Menawan

The poster was developed in order to give information to the public on tips to get beautiful and healthy smile. This pamphlet suitable for everyone and can be used nationwide. MYIPO Number: LY201900887

Dental caries status of children and young adult with disabilities attending special needs boarding schools in Kuantan, Pahang

Objectives: The objective of this study is to assess the caries status of children with disabilities attending special needs boarding schools in Kuantan, Pahang. Study design: This cross-sectional study involved 270 children and young adult with hearing, visual or learning disabilities aged between 5 to 20 years old. The dental caries status was evaluated using the DMFT/dmft indices in accordance with the WHO criteria. Results: All children (100%) between 5-6 years old had caries, 38 (86.4%) children of the 7-12 age group had caries in mix-dentition while 152 (69.1%) children and young adult from the age group of 13-20 had caries in the permanent dentition. From the total number of 270 participants, 196 (72.6%) children and young adult had caries experience with only 74 participants who were caries free. According to the types of disability, the visually disabled group had the highest dmft mean of 4.00 whereas the learning-disabled group had the highest DMFT mean of 2.95. There were no significant differences across the types of disabilities (p>0.05). Conclusion: This study suggests that the disabled student at the special needs boarding schools in Kuantan, Pahang have a high caries prevalence

Antibacterial activity of ethanol extract of Sargassum polycystum against Streptococcus mutans and Lactobacillus casei: in vitro

Introduction: Sargassum polycystum (brown seaweeds) has been recognized as a potential source of natural antibacterial and antimicrobial compounds. It has been used in many applications and products as they possess interesting biological activities that give benefit to the dental and medical area. Aims: The objectives of this study were to determine the growth curve of Streptococcus mutans and Lactobacillus casei, and also to determine minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) value of Sargassum polycystum extract against Streptococcus mutans and Lactobacillus casei. Materials and methods: The growth of both bacteria were studied by growth curve analysis. Besides that, the antibacterial activity of Sargassum polycystum ethanol extracts against two oral cariogenic bacteria were examined using broth dilution method. The bioactivity of the seaweed extract was studied by finding the MIC and MBC value. Results: The time taken for the Streptococcus mutans and Lactobacillus casei to achieve exponential phase during growth is 4 and 5 hours respectively. MIC values of ethanol extracts of Sargassum polycystum in different concentration against Streptococcus mutans and Lactobacillus casei were unreliable because the presence of fungus (white-precipitate) at all 96-well plates including the positive and negative control. As there was no MIC value, partial inhibition was determined by calculating the optical density. Therefore, MBC analysis was unable to carry out because the MIC values were unreliable. Conclusion: The ethanol extract of Sargassum polycystum used in this study show partial bacterial inhibition against pathogens used. Therefore, the same study by using different type of solvent are recommended to be carried out in the future