Dentistry

The specialty of Dental Surgery has progressed from the "blood and acrylic" of the early seventies. Dentistry has undergone a quantum leap over the past twenty-five years, with improvements in both technique and technology, bringing us the sophisticated procedures used in today's practice.peer-reviewe

John Eskdale Fishburn : first graduate dentist of the University of Malta

The regulation of dental surgery developed slowly during the nineteenth surgery. Warrants for licence to practice as surgeon dentists were initially issued by the Government on the recommendation of the Medical Board. The University by the new Statute of 1907 was empowered to examine and award a Diploma in Dental Surgery. John Eskdale Fishburn, a student from Guy's Hospital serving in the Royal Navy was the first to be awarded the Diploma.Dental.Surgery. Recent contacts with his family have produced details of this colourful and remarkable person. It is likely that the practise of dentistry in Malta during the early nineteenth century was not much different from that of the rest of Europe. The European picture of dental treatment in Europe at that period is now being carefully studied and many old misconceptions are being clarified.1 Dental treatment was mainly surgical, predominantly dental extractions, together with the use of herbal and patented medicines, mostly of spurious value and at about this time there were the initial steps in the development of prosthetic and restorative dentistry. Persons attending to diseases of the teeth and mouth did not comprise one single professional group but were persons of varied background, training, and capability including graduate physicians, surgeons, apothecaries and semi-professionals such as dentists and surgeon dentists, phlebotomists, tooth-drawers, charlatans and quacks.peer-reviewe

Fluoride and dental caries

Fluorine was probably discovered by the chemist Scheele in 1771, and eventually isolated in 1886 by Moissan. Its presence in bones and teeth was initially disputed but eventually confirmed in the middle of the eighteenth century. In this article the author discusses the few epidemiological studies which confirm the relationship between fluoride concentration in drinking water, mottled enamel and the incidence of dental caries and also describes the Maltese scene in regards the caries level in tap water.peer-reviewe

Depicting the analyses of the first National Maltese Childhood BMI study

Introduction Obesity is a chronic disease that often commences in childhood. Several publications have shown that a quarter to a third of Maltese children are overweight or obese. Malta will be the first country to measure height and weight (and hence Body Mass Index) for all school children in order to quantify the extent of the problem. Methods This study would include 46,000 children in 150 schools. This would be the first time that any country measured its entire childhood cohort, as opposed to sampling. Hence, it was decided to attempt to facilitate data collection and analysis with the use of bespoke spreadsheets. Results This paper will demonstrate how standard Microsoft Excel was used to accomplish this, greatly speeding up the data analysis process. Conclusion Software should be prepared in advance in anticipation of large amounts of data that need to be analysed and summarised. Particular care must be taken in order to prepare the requisite graphs and tables in advance so as to process the data once and present it in a suitable format for consumption and evaluation.peer-reviewe

The students’ acceptance and use of their university’s virtual learning environment

The proliferation of digital and mobile devices, including; smartphones and tablets has led policy makers and practitioners to include these ubiquitous technologies in the realms of education. A thorough review of the relevant literature suggests that both students as well as their course instructors are becoming increasingly acquainted with the adoption of education technologies in the higher educational context. Hence, this study explores the university students’ readiness to engage with the virtual learning environment (VLE). The methodology has integrated measuring items that were drawn from the educational technology literature, including the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology, to better understand the students’ perceptions towards VLE. It investigated whether they were influenced by their instructors or by fellow students to use VLE. The results suggest that most of the research participants were using this technology as they believed that it supported them in their learning outcomes. The findings also revealed that the students were not coerced by their course instructors or by other individuals to engage with VLE. Moreover, the university’s facilitating conditions had a significant effect on the participants’ usage of VLE. In conclusion, this contribution puts forward key implications to practitioners. It also clarifies the limitations of this study and proposes future research directions.peer-reviewe

An overview of the Private Enforcement of Competition Law in Italy

The Essay focuses on many key aspects of the implementation of Directive 104/2014 UE in Italy: Which entity is liable for damages; the law in action of the binding effects of decisions of competition authorities; the law limitations of actions for damages; the Collective actions/pooling of claims. The Author then focuses on some further missing pieces of the puzzle: causation and quantification of damages

The causes of tooth loss

The substantial majority of permanent teeth are lost because of dental caries or periodontal disease. This paper reports a pilot study into the causes of tooth loss of 297 Maltese patients attending the Dental Department of St. Luke's Hospital, carried out in July 1964. The main conclusion of this study indicates that periodontal disease becomes the major cause of tooth loss in adults. In this regard the importance of regular dental care commencing at an early age is highlighted and recommended.peer-reviewe