Technical quality assessment of root canal treatment performed by preclinical dental students at Taibah University, KSA

AbstractObjectivesThe aim of this study was to evaluate the technical quality of root canal treatment (RCT) performed by preclinical undergraduate dental students at the Dental College of Taibah University KSA.MethodsIn this study, 259 extracted teeth were treated endodontically by preclinical students of the College of Dentistry, Taibah University, KSA, from 2013 to 2015. The evaluation criteria were root canal obturation length, root canal obturation density (homogeneity), and root canal obturation taper. A specific score (0, 1, or 2) was assigned to each parameter.ResultsOf 259 endodontically extracted teeth, 138 (53.3%) had RCT of unacceptable technical quality, 42 (16.2%) had treatment of slightly acceptable technical quality, 50 (19.3%) had treatment of acceptable technical quality, and 29 (11.2%) teeth had RCT of perfectly acceptable technical quality. There were no significant differences (p > 0.05) in the technical quality of root canal obturation among types of teeth.ConclusionThe results of this study showed that there were varied levels of technical quality of root canal treatment performed by preclinical undergraduate dental students, and the outcome varied between unacceptable, slightly acceptable, acceptable, and perfectly acceptable. The unacceptable cases were the most common, representing more than half of all cases, and the perfectly acceptable cases were the least common. There is an urgent need to improve the endodontics teaching programmes in the College of Dentistry of Taibah University. This research should be repeated in the future to evaluate improvement in the performance of RCT by undergraduate dental students in Taibah University

Dental Applications of Nanodiamonds

YesNanodiamonds (NDs) have been used in various fields of medicine such as drug delivery, tissue regeneration and gene therapy. Although there has been research carried out investigated the potential of these remarkable materials in dentistry, to date no review has been published to summarize the studies conducted. Due to their target cell specificity, small size and fluorescence they have also been found to be usefulness in dentistry. Main applications of NDs in dentistry and medicine include guided tissue regeneration, reinforcement of polymers and drug delivery to treat infections and cancers. Recent research also suggests that NDs can also be used as bioactive or antibacterial dental implant coatings. However, to date, the research conducted on their biocompatibility is limited and inconclusive. Hence, substantially more in vitro and in vivo studies are required to envisage the future of NDs in dentistry. It is hoped that in the next decade these promising materials will find a variety of uses in routine dentistry

Paris dans les récits de voyage d’écrivains arabes : repérage, analyse sémantique et cartographie de toponymes

À la croisée du traitement du langage naturel, des études littéraires et des humanités spatiales, nous présentons dans cet article une approche pour cartographier les modalités sémantiques positives ou négatives associées aux noms de lieux dans des textes en arabe. La chaîne de traitement comprend le repérage des entités nommées de lieu, l’analyse sémantique de leur contexte (opinions, émotions et sentiments), ainsi que la cartographie de leurs instances sur des cartes géographiques. Notre corpus de travail comprend six récits de voyage à Paris de grands écrivains arabes des xixe et xxe siècles. Des approches à base de règles et à base d’apprentissage automatique ont été expérimentées et évaluées pour le repérage des entités nommées de lieu et pour l’analyse sémantique. Les résultats de notre étude permettent de confirmer l’apport de cette méthode automatique pour la recherche littéraire, en contribuant à une étude sémantique de vaste ampleur.We present in this paper an automated method to map out positive or negative semantic modalities associated with place names in Arabic travelogue literature. This research sits at the crossroads of Natural Language Processing, Literary Studies, and Digital Humanities. Our pipeline identifies place named entities, analyzes their semantic context (with regard to opinions, sentiments and emotions), and locates the place names on geographic maps. Our corpus includes six travel writings on Paris from some of the most influential Arab writers of the 19th and 20th centuries. We evaluate rule-based and machine-learning approaches for their efficacy in named entity recognition and semantic analysis. The results of our automated analysis confirm, to a great extent, the judgements and interpretations of traditional critical scholarship on these Arabic literary texts

PRISMA for abstracts: best practice for reporting abstracts of systematic reviews in Endodontology

An abstract is a brief overview of a scientific, clinical or review manuscript as well as a stand‐alone summary of a conference abstract. Scientists, clinician–scientists and clinicians rely on the summary information provided in the abstracts of systematic reviews to assist in subsequent clinical decision‐making. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta‐Analyses (PRISMA) for Abstracts checklist was developed to improve the quality, accuracy and completeness of abstracts associated with systematic reviews and meta‐analyses. The PRISMA for Abstracts checklist provides a framework for authors to follow, which helps them provide in the abstract the key information from the systematic review that is required by stakeholders. The PRISMA for Abstracts checklist contains 12 items (title, objectives, eligibility criteria, information sources, risk of bias, included studies, synthesis of results, description of the effect, strength and limitations, interpretation, funding and systematic review registration) under six sections (title, background, methods, results, discussion, other). The current article highlights the relevance and importance of the items in the PRISMA for Abstracts checklist to the specialty of Endodontology, while offering explanations and specific examples to assist authors when writing abstracts for systematic reviews when reported in manuscripts or submitted to conferences. Strict adherence to the PRISMA for Abstracts checklist by authors, reviewers and journal editors will result in the consistent publication of high‐quality abstracts within Endodontology

Root Canal Anatomy of Maxillary and Mandibular Teeth

It is a common knowledge that a comprehensive understanding of the complexity of the internal anatomy of teeth is imperative to ensure successful root canal treatment. The significance of canal anatomy has been emphasized by studies demonstrating that variations in canal geometry before cleaning, shaping, and obturation procedures had a greater effect on the outcome than the techniques themselves. In recent years, significant technological advances for imaging teeth, such as CBCT and micro-CT, respectively, have been introduced. Their noninvasive nature allows to perform in vivo anatomical studies using large populations to address the influence of several variables such as ethnicity, aging, gender, and others, on the root canal anatomy, as well as to evaluate, quantitatively and/or qualitatively, specific and fine anatomical features of a tooth group. The purpose of this chapter is to summarize the morphological aspects of the root canal anatomy published in the literature of all groups of teeth and illustrate with three-dimensional images acquired from micro-CT technology.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Optical and structural properties of zinc oxide nanoparticles synthesized by different sol-gel routes

Transformation into nanoscale from bulk structures involves an outstanding modification in the properties of materials. It gives an opportunity to get a novel behaviour such as size dependent in structural and optical properties. Zinc oxide nanoparticle is a promising material for many applications especially optical devices. There are many methods to synthesis these nanoparticles. In this work ZnO nanoparticles are synthesized by sol-gel method using different routes with different stirring temperatures. The structural, morphological and optical properties of ZnO nanoparticles are studied. The result of the XRD shows that the average particle size of ZnO particles decreases with increasing stirring temperature. By using Williamson-Hall formula to calculate the average size of ZnO nanoparticles it reveals that the Zinc Acetate precursor gives smaller nanoparticles than Zinc Nitrate (at 70 o C ~22 and ~50 nm respectively). FESEM images display the semi-spherical shaped of the synthesized nanoparticles and emphasise that the nanoparticles synthesized by Zinc Acetate are finer and more homogenous than those synthesized with Zinc Nitrate. Furthermore, the photoluminescence result shows that the band energy of the zinc oxide nanoparticles synthesized by Zinc Nitrate is 3.02 eV while for those synthesized with Zinc Acetate is 3.10 eV. The excellent features of the result suggest that this work may constitute a basis for the tuneable synthesis of ZnO nanoparticles suitable for optoelectronics devices

Assessment of apical transportation caused by nickel–titanium rotary systems with full rotation and reciprocating movements using extracted teeth and resin blocks with simulated root canals: A comparative study

Objectives: We compared apical transportation in the WaveOne and ProTaper Next systems, which are rotary nickel–titanium systems with reciprocating and continuous rotation movements, respectively, using manual measurements obtained from resin blocks with simulated root canals and double digital radiographs of extracted teeth.Materials and Methods: We used 30 resin blocks with simulated root canals and 30 extracted teeth for this study. The same endodontist performed root canal shaping using the WaveOne or ProTaper Next system. We assessed apical transportation by measuring the amounts (in mm) of material lost 1 mm from the apical foramen in the resin blocks and by using double digital radiography for the extracted teeth. Significant differences between groups were assessed using t‑tests. P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.Results: The amount of apical transportation differed significantly between the two systems when resin blocks were used for assessment (P < 0.05), but there were no significant differences when extracted teeth were used (P < 0.05).Conclusions: In the current study, there was no significant difference in apical transportation between natural teeth prepared using WaveOne and those prepared using ProTaper Next. However, significant differences were observed between the two systems with resin blocks. These findings indicate that the use of resin blocks is not an accurate method for apical transportation evaluation.Keywords: Apical canal transportation, digital radiograph, extracted teeth, nickel–titanium, rotary systems, simulated cana

Attitudes of general practice dentists in private dental clinics in Almadinah Almunawarah toward novel endodontic technologies

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the current trends and the adoption of new technologies in endodontic treatment by general practitioners in private dental clinics in Almadinah Almunawarah. Methods: A questionnaire was distributed randomly to 70 general practitioners working in private dental clinics in Almadinah Almnourah, Saudi Arabia. After one week, the questionnaires were hand-collected. Sixty-three dentists (90%) returned the questionnaire. The study was conducted between February and May 2014. Results: The results indicated that 100% of the general practitioners did not use any magnification device during root canal treatments; 11% of the respondents used digital X-ray equipment, 12.7% used an electronic apex locator, 38% used NiTi rotary instrumentation in root canal preparations, 100% did not use any adjunctive device for irrigant activation and 100% did not use new devices or techniques for root canal obturations. Conclusions: This study provides data regarding the current trends and attitudes of general practitioners in private dental clinics in Al-Madinah Al-Monawarah regarding novel technologies in endodontic treatment and reveals the gap between the new advances in endodontics and clinical practice, as well as the need to improve root canal treatment in private dental practices

E-Quotes: Enunciative Modalities Analysis Tool for Direct Reported Speech in Arabic

International audienceWith rapidly growing Arabic online sources aimed to encourage people's discussions concerning personal, public or social issues (news, blogs, forums…), there is a critical need in development of computational tools for the Enunciative Modalities analysis (attitude, opinion, commitment…). We present a new system that identifies and categorizes quotations in Arabic texts and proposes a strategy to determine whether a given speaker's quotation conveys some enunciative modalities and potentially its evaluation by the enunciator. Our system enables two query types search for keywords within the "categorized" quotations: searching for keywords in the part potentially containing the reported speech source (the reporting clause) or searching for keywords in the part concerning the topic (the reported clause). The annotation is performed with a rule-based system using the reporting markers' meaning. We applied our system to process a corpus of Arabic newspaper articles and we obtained promising results for the evaluation