Preventive dental behaviors among U.S. college students based on the Health Belief Model

Introduction. Individuals' beliefs about oral diseases can influence their preventive dental behaviors such as tooth brushing, tooth flossing, and regular dental checkups. The Health Belief Model (HBM) has been frequently utilized in behavioral studies to better understand health behaviors, and it can be used as an indicator of preventive dental behaviors. Studying the impact of COVID-19 on preventive dental behaviors would be also necessary to develop the foundation for future intervention research.Purpose. To evaluate college students' preventive dental behaviors based on HBM, identify key constructs of HBM to promote preventive dental behaviors, and determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on college students’ preventive dental behaviors.Method. 550 college students (ages 18 to 25; 69.8% female) participated in the study. An online survey was used for data collection. Descriptive statistics were calculated for demographic, COVID-19 variables, and the prevalence of preventive dental behaviors. After adjusting demographic characteristics, a multivariate analysis of variance was used to examine the relationship between the HBM constructs and preventive dental behaviors. In addition, chi-square was used to determine the prevalence of preventive dental behaviors associated with dental knowledge.Result. Perceived barriers and self-efficacy were significant predictors of preventive dental behaviors among college students (p < 0.001). Also, a significantly higher proportion of students with sufficient dental knowledge met the recommendations for tooth brushing and regular dental checkups compared to those with deficient and moderate dental knowledge (p < 0.05). Although most of the participants (about 80~89%) claimed that the COVID-19 pandemic had no influence on their preventive dental behaviors, a considerable number of the students still reported positive and negative influences of COVID-19 on their behaviors.Conclusion. The Health Belief Model could be an effective framework to promote preventive dental behaviors for college students, particularly, using perceived barriers and self-efficacy. In addition, increasing dental knowledge could be another effective strategy to promote preventive dental behaviors. Lastly, an intervention program for promoting preventive dental behaviors would be beneficial when the behaviors are treated as daily habits rather than common health-related behaviors

The Effect of Low-Level Laser Therapy on the Acceleration of Orthodontic Tooth Movement

In clinical practice, Low-Level Laser Therapy (LLLT) is widely used. The main aim of this review is to assess the effectiveness of LLLT on accelerating tooth movement in human subjects. The PRISMA checklist was utilized as a guideline to carry out this systematic review. The electronic databases were searched from Google Scholar (2014-2018) and PubMed, and comprehensive research on this topic was also manually conducted. Therefore, 76 Randomized Clinical Trials (RCT) or Controlled Clinical Trials (CCT) articles were selected. After screening studies, consequently, ten trials met the inclusion criteria. Eight out of ten studies showed LLLT has a significant impact on the acceleration of orthodontic tooth movement, and there was no statistically significant difference in the rate of tooth movement between the laser group and the control group in the two remaining studies. Furthermore, five out of ten articles showed that LLLT has no adverse effects. Although we have some degree of understanding from a cellular point of view to low-level laser therapy effects, we still do not know whether this cellular level changes have any effect on clinical acceleration of the orthodontic tooth movement. The results are inconclusive and cannot be generalized to the public community; therefore, well-structured studies are required

The Effect of Carbon Dioxide Laser on Aphthous stomatitis Treatment: A Double-Blind Randomized Clinical Trial: Carbon Dioxide Laser and Aphthous stomatitis

Introduction: This randomized clinical trial was designed to investigate the effect of carbon dioxide laser on the treatment of minor recurrent aphthous stomatitis (miRAS) as a painful and common oral ulcer.Methods: Fifteen patients with miRAS entered into this study after compliance with the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The patients were assigned to three groups of pulsed CO2 laser, continuous CO2 laser, and control. A pulsed CO2 laser with a power of 261 W and pulse duration of 180 microseconds and continuous CO2 lasers with the power of 1 W and radiation duration of 5-10 seconds were used. In the control group, topical triamcinolone ointment of 0.1% was used. The degree of pain was measured using the visual analogue scale (VAS). The patients were evaluated in terms of pain intensity before and immediately after the treatment and at follow-up hours, 12, 24, 48, and 72 hours after the intervention, and changes in the size of the ulcers were measured before the treatment and on third, fifth, and seventh days.Results: The effect of CO2 laser with pulsed and continuous radiation on the pain intensity of aphthous lesions, immediately after the treatment and at subsequent follow-up hours were similar and even better than the control group (P&lt;0.05). All three treatments had a similar effect on the size of the ulcer, which was not statistically significant (P&gt;0.05).Conclusion: The results of this randomized controlled trial (RCT) showed that the carbon dioxide laser, whether with pulsed radiation or continuous radiation compared to the control group, had a better impact on the pain relief of aphthous lesions

Designing a tool to assess professionalism among dental students in clinical departments of dental school and its psychometric analysis

Objectives: Professionalism is essential to a strong trusted patient-doctor relationship, which is believed, could lead to more patient compliance and treatment outcomes. The purpose of our study was the development and psychometric analysis of an assessment tool for the professional behavior of dental students. Materials and Methods: The study was done in the School of Dentistry, Tehran University of Medical Sciences. After providing a pool of various criteria to assess professionalism, an expert panel prepared the primary version of the tool. The tool was set in a questionnaire frame to explore the significance level and evaluation feasibility of each criterion. The questionnaire was completed by tutors of the “Medical Ethics” course (N=6). After necessary revisions, in order to evaluate face and content validity, the checklist was given to eight experienced dental educators to determine the relevance, clarity and simplicity of the questions. At the second stage, the final checklist with 37 items was given to dental educators to evaluate twenty students. To assess the reliability of this checklist, at least two professors evaluated each student and the weighted-  was calculated. Minor revisions were done according to feedbacks. Results: According to the obtained data, the total validity of the tool (S-CVI) was 100%. In all items, except just for one item, the weighted-  was greater than or equal to 0.5, showing sufficient reliability of these items. Conclusion: The designed tool to evaluate the professionalism among dental students in different clinical departments seems to be both valid and reliable