Psychometric properties of Greek versions of the Modified Corah Dental Anxiety Scale (MDAS) and the Dental Fear Survey (DFS)

Background: A growing body of literature describes the performance of dental fear questionnaires in various countries. We describe the psychometric properties of Greek versions of the Modified Dental Anxiety Scale (MDAS) and the Dental Fear Survey (DFS) in adult Greek patients. Methods: Greek versions of the MDAS and DFS were administered to two samples of adult dental patients. In the first sample, 195 patients attending one of three private practice dental offices in a large city in Greece completed the questionnaires in the waiting room before dental treatment. After treatment, their dentists (who did not know how the patients had answered the questionnaire) rated their anxiety during dental treatment. In the second sample, 41 patients attending a Greek university dental school clinic completed the questionnaire twice at two separate visits, in order to provide test-retest data. Cronbach's alpha was used to compute the internal consistencies, while Spearman's rho was used to compute the testretest reliabilities. Construct validity was assessed by correlating the responses to the MDAS and DFS by Spearman's rho. Spearman's rho was also used to examine the criterion validities, by comparing the questionnaire responses with the dentists' ratings of anxiety. Results: The internal consistencies for the MDAS were 0.90 and 0.92 in the two samples; for the DFS, the internal consistencies were 0.96 in both samples. The test-retest reliabilities were 0.94 for the MDAS and 0.95 for the DFS. The correlation between the two questionnaires was 0.89. The patients' responses to both questionnaires were significantly related to the dentists' ratings of their anxiety during dental treatment (both p values less than 0.001). Conclusion: The results indicate that the Greek versions of the MDAS and DFS have good internal consistencies and test-retest reliabilities, as well as good construct and criterion validities. The psychometric properties of the Greek versions of these questionnaires appear to be similar to those previously reported in other countries.This research was supported by NIH/NIDCR grant T32DE07132

Influence of Irrigation with NaOCl and Chlorhexidine on Microleakage

Background: Irrigation during endodontic therapy is required in order to remove debris, tissue remnants, microbes and smear layer. Sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) and Chlorhexidine (CHX) are the most commonly used irrigants. Although they are reported to have good antimicrobial effects, both have limitations. Hence, a combination of NaOCl and CHX has been proposed to compensate for these limitations. However, this association forms a dense, orange-brown precipitate that stains walls of the pulp chamber. The aim of this study was to clarify in vitro if this precipitate affects the microleakage of endodontic sealers

Extrusion of Root Canal Sealer in Periapical Tissues - Report of Two Cases with Different Treatment Management and Literature Review

Background: Extrusion of root canal sealers may cause damage to the surrounding anatomic structures. Clinical symptoms like pain, swelling and paresthesia or anesthesia may be present. The purpose of this presentation is to describe two cases of root canal sealer penetration into periapical tissues. A different treatment management was followed in each case

Effect of Er,Cr:YSGG laser irradiation on apical sealing ability of calcium silicate-containing endodontic materials in root-end cavities

The aim of this research was to evaluate the apical sealing abilities of 60 root-end cavities filled with mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA) and iRoot BP cements after treated with either 17% EDTA solution or Er,Cr:YSGG laser irradiation. After the filling procedure, apical leakage quantity was measured at 4 weeks using a fluid filtration method. One root from each group was processed for scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy analyses. Both EDTA/MTA and laser irradiation/MTA combinations showed significantly lower microleakage than EDTA/iRoot BP and laser irradiation/iRoot BP combinations (p0.05). Both MTA and iRoot-BP demonstrated tag-like structures within the dentinal tubules when used in conjunction with EDTA

Targeting strategy generating a COIN allele of <i>Sox2</i>.

<p>(<b>A</b>) Schematic representation of the mouse <i>Sox2</i> locus indicating the relative location of the exon on chromosome 3, as well as that of <i>mir1897</i>, the non-coding RNA <i>Sox2ot</i>, and CpG islands in the genomic region. The degree of conservation of the locus sequence between mammalian species (ECRs) is indicated. Adapted from <a href="http://genome.ucsc.edu" target="_blank">http://genome.ucsc.edu</a>. (<b>B</b>) Schematic representation of the <i>Sox2^COIN</i> allele. The COIN module intron is inserted after the 30^th nucleotide of <i>Sox2</i>’s coding region (i.e. coordinate 34549367 on Chromosome 3) splitting the single exon of Sox2 into two exons and also dividing the CpG island. The COIN module is comprised of an optimized gene trap-like element composed of the 3′ splice region of the rabbit beta globin gene (HBB_RABIT), followed by <i>eGFP</i> (lacking an initiating ATG) and the polyadenylation region from HBB_RABIT, all placed in the antisense strand. The COIN module has been flanked with <i>Lox71</i> and <i>Lox66</i> sites in a mirror image orientation, thereby enabling inversion by Cre. For BHR and targeting, a FRT-flanked <i>neo</i> cassette has been incorporated into the COIN intron. After targeting, <i>neo</i> is removed to give rise to the <i>Sox2^COIN</i> allele. The COIN module is antisense to <i>Sox2</i>, and hence it predicted not to interfere with expression of <i>Sox2</i>. However, after inversion of the COIN module to the sense strand, transcription terminates around the polyadenylation region of the COIN module, and as a result expression of <i>Sox2</i> is replaced by <i>eGFP</i>.</p

Analysis of progeny from <i>Sox2^INV/+</i> × <i>Sox2^INV/+</i> intercrosses^#.

<p>Genotyping of <i>Sox2^INV/+</i> heterozygous intercross progeny.</p>#<p>Data collected from mice in C57BL6 background.</p>*<p>Genotypes were assessed by PCR either from tail biopsies or embryo tissue.</p