Comparison of knowledge, attitude and concern about HIV/AIDS patients among dental students: A cross sectional survey

HIV/AIDS has taken a pandemic form affecting 40 million people around the world. The present study aimed to determine the knowledge, attitude, and concerns of dental students towards HIV/AIDS infected individuals. A cross sectional study was conducted among 224 subjects, among them 112 final year (FY) students and 112 interns. Subjects were selected from 10 dental colleges in Bangalore city, India. Data was collected through a self-administered questionnaire. The mean knowledge score of FY students and interns was 73.66+5.9 and 80.4+7.2 respectively; the mean attitude score was 71.25+1.707 and 87.75+1.8 and the mean concern score was 92+2.645 and 97.75+3.171 respectively. Differences in the mean score were significant. Dental interns had slightly higher knowledge, attitude, and concern than the FY students. There is a need to add HIV/AIDS patient’s infection control measures in the dental curriculum.   Le VIH/SIDA a pris une forme pandémique touchant 40 millions de personnes dans le monde. La présente étude visait à déterminer les connaissances, l'attitude et les préoccupations des étudiants en médecine dentaire envers les personnes infectées par le VIH/SIDA. Une étude transversale a été menée auprès de 224 sujets, dont 112 étudiants de dernière année (FY) et 112 stagiaires. Les sujets ont été sélectionnés dans 10 collèges dentaires de la ville de Bangalore, en Inde. Les données ont été recueillies au moyen d'un questionnaire auto-administré. Le score de connaissance moyen des étudiants et des stagiaires FY était respectivement de 73,66+5,9 et 80,4+7,2 ; le score moyen d'attitude était de 71,25+1,707 et 87,75+1,8 et le score moyen de préoccupation était respectivement de 92+2,645 et 97,75+3,171. Les différences dans le score moyen étaient significatives. Les stagiaires dentaires avaient des connaissances, une attitude et des préoccupations légèrement plus élevées que les étudiants de l'AF. Il est nécessaire d'ajouter les mesures de contrôle de l'infection des patients atteints du VIH/SIDA dans le programme d'études dentaires

Oralne manifestacije u pedijatrijskih bolesnika zaraženih virusom humane imunodefi cijencije na antiretrovirusnoj terapiji i bez nje: presječno istraživanje

The aim of the study was to assess and compare oral manifestations of human immunodefi ciency virus (HIV) infected pediatric patients undergoing antiretroviral therapy (ART) and those not undergoing ART. A cross sectional study included HIV positive children (receiving and not receiving ART) aged 5-15 years, registered at the District Hospital ART Centre, Udaipur, and HIV negative schoolchildren. HIV related oral lesions were diagnosed according to the World Health Organization criteria. Sociodemographic and other related information were also recorded. CD4+ cell count was determined in all study subjects. The χ2 -test, stepwise multiple linear regression and logistic regression were used on statistical analysis. In all tests, confi dence interval and p-value were set at 95% and ≤0.05, respectively. A greater proportion of HIV patients receiving treatment had CD4+ cell count of more than 750 cells/mm3 . The majority of HIV patients receiving ART for more than three years and only 20% of those not receiving ART were free from any oral lesions. The results of the present study demonstrated ART to be eff ective in reducing the prevalence of HIV related oral lesions, as already described in the literature; however, unlike previous studies, the present paper reports more valid fi ndings for having included most of the confounding variablesCilj istraživanja bio je procijeniti i usporediti oralne manifestacije u pedijatrijskih bolesnika zaraženih virusom humane imunodefi - cijencije (HIV) koji primaju antiretrovirusnu terapiju (ART) i onih koji ne primaju ovu terapiju. Ovo presječno istraživanje uključilo je HIV pozitivnu djecu (djecu koja primaju ART i djecu koja ne primaju ART) u dobi od 5-15 godina, registriranu pri Centru za ART u Pokrajinskoj bolnici u Udaipuru te HIV negativnu školsku djecu. Oralne promjene povezane s HIV-om dijagnosticirane su prema kriterijima Svjetske zdravstvene organizacije. Prikupljeni su socio-demografski te ostali podaci za svu djecu uključenu u ispitivanje. U svih je određen broj CD4+ stanica. U statističkoj analizi primijenjen je χ2 -test te postupna višestruka linearna regresija i logistička regresija. U svim testovima interval vjerodostojnosti i vrijednost p utvrđeni su na razini od 95% odnosno ≤0,05. Broj CD4+ stanica veći od 750 stanica/mm3 zabilježen je u većem postotku HIV bolesnika na ART. Bez oralnih promjena bila je većina HIV bolesnika koji su primali ART duže od tri godine, ali samo 20% onih koji nisu primali ART. Rezultati ovoga istraživanja pokazuju da ART učinkovito snižava učestalost oralnih promjena povezanih s HIV-om, što je već prije opisano u literaturi. Međutim, za razliku od prijašnjih ispitivanja, nalazi prikazani u ovom radu imaju veću vrijednost, jer uključuju većinu čimbenika koji bi mogli utjecati na rezultate

Photoactivated disinfection (PAD) of dental root canal system – An ex-vivo study

AbstractAimTo investigate the efficacy of photo activated disinfection (PAD) in reducing colony-forming unit (CFU) counts of Enterococcus faecalis (E. faecalis) in infected dental root canals. The study compared the efficacy of PAD with conventional endodontic treatment (CET) and also a combination of CET along with PAD.Material and Methods53 maxillary incisors were taken for the study. Teeth were divided into 3 groups, CET (Group I) (n=11), PAD (Group II) (n=21), and a combination of CET and PAD (Group III) which consisted of (n=21) samples, Group II and Group III were further divided into 2 subgroups, Group IIa, IIb and Group IIIa, IIIb. Strains of E. faecalis were inoculated in all the root canals. CET group samples were treated by chemo-mechanical preparation (CMP) alone, PAD samples were treated with laser alone at 2 different exposure time (4min and 2min). In the combination treatment, samples were treated initially by CET and then by PAD for a time period of 4min and 2min. Contents of the root canal were aspirated, diluted and plated in Tryptone Soya Broth (TSB) and plates were incubated for 24h to observe the bacterial regrowth.ResultsShowed PAD used along with CMP reduced the bacterial load of E. faecalis by 99.5% at 4min and 98.89% at 2min.ConclusionPAD may be an adjunctive procedure to kill residual bacteria in the dental root canal systems after standard endodontic root canal preparation

Antimicrobial effects of Citrus sinensis peel extracts against dental caries bacteria: an in vitro study

Background: Ethnomedicine is gaining admiration since years but still there is abundant medicinal flora which is unrevealed through research. The study was conducted to assess the in vitro antimicrobial potential and also determine the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of Citrus sinensis peel extracts with a view of searching a novel extract as a remedy for dental caries pathogens. Material and Methods: Aqueous and ethanol (cold and hot) extracts prepared from peel of Citrus sinensis were screened for in vitro antimicrobial activity against Streptococcus mutans and Lactobacillus acidophilus , using agar well diffusion method. The lowest concentration of every extract considered as the minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) values were determined for both test organisms. One way ANOVA with Post Hoc Bonferroni test was applied for statistical analysis. Confidence level and level of significance were set at 95% and 5% respectively. Results: Dental caries pathogens were inhibited most by hot ethanolic extract of Citrus sinensis peel followed by cold ethanolic extract. Aqueous extracts were effective at very high concentrations. Minimum inhibitory concentration of hot and cold ethanolic extracts of Citrus sinensis peel ranged between 12-15 mg/ml against both the dental caries pathogens. Conclusions: Citrus sinensis peels extract was found to be effective against dental caries pathogens and contain compounds with therapeutic potential. Nevertheless, clinical trials on the effect of these plants are essential before advocating large-scale therap

Effectiveness of oral health education on knowledge, attitude, practices and oral hygiene status among 12–15-year-old schoolchildren of fishermen of Kutch district, Gujarat, India

Background: To assess the effectiveness of oral health education on oral health knowledge, attitude, practices and oral hygiene status among 12–15-year-old school children of fishermen of Kutch district, Gujarat, India.Materials and methods: A before-and-after experimental study was conducted among all (n = 205) the 12–15-year-old children from two schools of Bhadreshwar village of Mundra taluka of Kutch district, Gujarat, India from January 2013 to December 2013. At baseline, children were assessed for oral health knowledge, attitude and practices using a self-administered structured questionnaire and oral hygiene was assessed using Oral Hygiene Index-Simplified (OHI-S). Oral health education was provided after baseline assessment, at 3 months and at 6 months. Follow up study was done after 1 year from baseline. Statistical tests applied were Independent t test, paired t test and McNemar test. Level of significance and confidence level were set at 5% and 95%, respectively.Results: Mean OHI-S scores reduced significantly at 1 year follow up interval. All the questions showed statistically significant improvement in knowledge, attitude and practices except the frequency of change of tooth brush which showed no improvement.Conclusions: The results of the study reflects the accomplishment of upgrading oral health knowledge, attitude, practices and oral hygiene status of fishermen children through school oral health education programme. Organizing oral health education in high school children of fishermen community could lead to improvement in students’ oral hygiene to ultimately enhance their oral health

Occurrence of vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in the oral cavity of patients with dental caries

Oral streptococci are the major group of microbes isolated from oral microflora. They represent frequent pathogens of infective endocarditis (IE), and it is assumed that in most of the cases oral streptococci are acquired via mucosa layer of oral cavity. Staphylococcus aureus is also frequently isolated from IE as it accounts for 20%–30% of all cases. Vancomycin has been the most reliable therapeutic agent against infections caused by methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA). The main objective of this study was to examine the occurrence of S. aureus species in dental caries specimens. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing of S. aureus to four antibiotics namely vancomycin, linezolid, teicoplanin, and daptomycin was performed. Detection of vancomycin resistance was conducted using polymerase chain reaction. Among the tested 150 strains, 98 were MRSA and of that 54 were vancomycin sensitive and 27 were resistant. All 98 MRSA strains were positive for mecA and 36 yielded pvl, whereas 13 carried vanA and only 2 were positive for vanB. Majority of the isolates showed sensitivity toward daptomycin and linezolid. Strains of S. aureus exhibiting decreased susceptibility to different antibiotics like vancomycin, daptomycin, and linezolid severely compromise the therapeutic alternatives and require a considerable amount of time, public awareness, and integrative health-care strategies to prevent the emergence of resistance to these compounds

Preliminary fabrication and characterization of electron beam melted Ti–6Al–4V customized dental implant

The current study was aimed to fabricate customized root form dental implant using additive manufacturing technique for the replacement of missing teeth. The root form dental implant was designed using GeomagicTM and MagicsTM, the designed implant was directly manufactured by layering technique using ARCAM A2TM electron beam melting system by employing medical grade Ti–6Al–4V alloy powder. Furthermore, the fabricated implant was characterized in terms of certain clinically important parameters such as surface microstructure, surface topography, chemical purity and internal porosity. Results confirmed that, fabrication of customized dental implants using additive rapid manufacturing technology offers an attractive method to produce extremely pure form of customized titanium dental implants, the rough and porous surface texture obtained is expected to provide better initial implant stabilization and superior osseointegration

Applications of raman spectroscopy in dentistry part II: Soft tissue analysis

Raman spectroscopy is rapidly moving from an experimental technique for the analysis of biological molecules to a tool for the real-time clinical diagnosis and in situ evaluation of the oral tissue in medical and dental research. The purpose of this study is to identify various applications of Raman spectroscopy, to evaluate the contemporary status and to explore future directions in the field of dentistry. Several in-depth applications are presented to illustrate Raman spectroscopy in early diagnosis of soft tissue abnormalities. Raman spectroscopy allows to analyze histological and biochemical composition of biological tissues. The technique not only demonstrates its role in the disclosure of dysplasia and malignancy but also in performing guided biopsies, diagnosing sialoliths, and assessment of surgical margins. Raman spectroscopy is used to identify the molecular structures and its components to give substantial information about the chemical structure properties of these molecules. In this paper, we acquaint the utilization of Raman spectroscopy in analyzing the soft tissues in relation to dentistry

An Uncommon Tooth Fusion of Mandibular Primary Lateral Incisor with Canine

Fusion is a congenital disturbance affecting primary dentition mostly during morpho differentiation of the primary tooth germs. Fusion leads to the union of two or more primary teeth by the enamel and dentin while the pulp and roots remain separate. These abnormalities may be unilateral or bilateral. Prompt diagnosis and a treatment plan in such anomalies may help to overcome problems concerning aesthetics, caries susceptibility and space management. This report describes a case of unilateral fusion of the primary mandibular lateral incisor and canine and aims to evaluate any associated pathology

Association of Peri-Implant Health Status With COVID-19

ABSTRACT: Objective: The aim of this research was to evaluate peri-implant health status in patients infected with COVID-19 and control patients (individuals without COVID-19). Methods: This observational investigation was performed in adults with (test group) and without (control group) COVID-19 infection having at least 1 functional dental implant. Self-reported education status and daily frequency of toothbrushing and flossing was determined. A questionnaire was administered to record demographic data, brushing/flossing frequency, and education status. Periodontal examination comprised full-mouth assessment of clinical attachment loss (CAL), plaque index (PI), probing depth (PD), and gingival index (GI). Peri-implant PD, modified PI, and modified gingival index were recorded. Loss of marginal and crestal bone around teeth and implants was also measured. Significance level was established for P < .05. Results: Seventy-three (41 males) and 71 (44 males) individuals were included in the test and control groups, respectively. Average ages of patients and controls were 44.6 ± 5.2 and 40.1 ± 3.1 years, respectively. University-level education was attained by 52 (75.3%) and 50 (70.4%) individuals in the test and control groups, respectively. Seventy (95.9%) and 68 (95.7%) patients and controls were brushing twice a day. Once-daily interproximal flossing was reported by 44 (60.3%) and 48 (67.6%) individuals in test and control groups. All participants had healthy periodontal and peri-implant tissues. Conclusions: The study indicated that there are no short-term adverse effects on the peri-implant tissues due to acute COVID-19 infection, and further well-controlled longitudinal studies are needed to evaluate the long-term effect of the infection on these tissues