Evaluation of mothers’ awareness about early childhood caries in Yasuj, Iran, 2015-2016

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Early childhood caries (ECC) is a multifactorial disease and several factors are implicated in its establishment. Considering the numerous problems those children with ECC face and the important role of parents in preventing them, the aim of this study was to evaluate the mothers’ awareness about ECC in Yasuj, Iran. METHODS: It was a cross-sectional study. The study population included 384 mothers of children below 6 years, who were randomly selected from the children referring to 4 urban health care centers. The data were collected using a 30-item questionnaire to assess mothers’ awareness about definition, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of ECC. The face and content validities of the questionnaire were confirmed by pediatric dentists and experts in questionnaire design. Its reliability was confirmed with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.73. Descriptive (mean, standard deviation, frequency) and analytic statistics (Spearman correlation coefficient) were used for data analysis. RESULTS: The mean age of children was 2.45 ± 1.46 years while the mean age of mothers was 29.71 ± 5.04 years. Almost half of the mothers had high school education, while others had higher degrees. Mothers’ awareness about ECC was poor in 20.8% of the cases, moderate in 62.2% of the cases, and good in 16.9% of the cases. It was observed that mother’s awareness about ECC had statistically significant direct relationships with both mother’s age and education. Based on multivariate linear regression, mother’s age (β = 0.17, P = 0.0001) and their education (β = 0.20, P = 0.0001) had significantly direct relation with mother’s awareness, too. CONCLUSION: Considering the undesirable ECC awareness level in the majority of Yasujian mothers and its association with mothers’ educations, the implementation of interventions to increase mothers’ awareness seems essential in this regard. KEYWORDS: Dental Caries; Awareness; Mother

Human gingival fibroblasts culture in an autologous scaffold and assessing its effect on augmentation of attached gingiva in a pilot clinical trial

BACKGROUND AND AIM: An important goal of periodontal plastic surgery is the creation of attached gingiva around the teeth. In this study, the aims were to culture gingival fibroblasts in a biodegradable scaffold and measure the width of attached gingiva after the clinical procedure. METHODS: This study was carried out on 4 patients (8 sites), with inadequate attached gingiva next to at least two teeth in contralateral quadrants of the same jaw. A biopsy of attached gingiva (epithelial + connective tissue) was taken using a surgical blade. Following culture of gingival fibroblasts, 250 × 103 cells in 250 μl nutritional medium were mixed with platelet-rich in growth factor (PRGF). Periosteal fenestration technique was done on one side (control) and tissue-engineered mucosal graft (test) was carried out on the contralateral side in each patient. The width of keratinized tissue, probing depth (PD) and width of attached gingiva were recorded at baseline and 3 months after the operation. RESULTS: An increased width of keratinized and attached tissue on all operated sites after 3 months was observed. These results showed the increased mean of the width of keratinized and attached gingiva to be 4.17 mm and 4.14 mm in test and 1.10 mm and 1.10 mm in control sites, respectively. The difference of keratinized and attached gingiva width between test and control sites was significant (P = 0.030, and P = 0.010 respectively). CONCLUSION: According to the results of this study, PRGF can be used as a scaffold to transfer gingival fibroblasts to recipient sites with significant clinical results. KEYWORDS: Tissue Engineering; Gingiva; Blood Platelet; Scaffol

Evaluation of mothers’ awareness about early childhood caries in Yasuj, Iran, 2015-2016

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Early childhood caries (ECC) is a multifactorial disease and several factors are implicated in its establishment. Considering the numerous problems those children with ECC face and the important role of parents in preventing them, the aim of this study was to evaluate the mothers’ awareness about ECC in Yasuj, Iran. METHODS: It was a cross-sectional study. The study population included 384 mothers of children below 6 years, who were randomly selected from the children referring to 4 urban healthcare centers. The data were collected using a 30-item questionnaire to assess mothers’ awareness about definition, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of ECC. The face and content validities of the questionnaire were confirmed by pediatric dentists and experts in questionnaire design. Its reliability was confirmed with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.73. Descriptive (mean, standard deviation, frequency) and analytic statistics (Spearman correlation coefficient) were used for data analysis. RESULTS: The mean age of children was 2.45 ± 1.46 years while the mean age of mothers was 29.71 ± 5.04 years. Almost half of the mothers had high school education, while others had higher degrees. Mothers’ awareness about ECC was poor in 20.8% of the cases, moderate in 62.2% of the cases, and good in 16.9% of the cases. It was observed that mother’s awareness about ECC had statistically significant direct relationships with both mother’s age and education. Based on multivariate linear regression, mother’s age (β = 0.17, P = 0.0001) and their education (β = 0.20, P = 0.0001) had significantly direct relation with mother’s awareness, too. CONCLUSION: Considering the undesirable ECC awareness level in the majority of Yasujian mothers and its association with mothers’ educations, the implementation of interventions to increase mothers’ awareness seems essential in this regard

Human gingival fibroblasts culture in an autologous scaffold and assessing its effect on augmentation of attached gingiva in a pilot clinical trial

BACKGROUND AND AIM: An important goal of periodontal plastic surgery is the creation of attached gingiva around the teeth. In this study, the aims were to culture gingival fibroblasts in a biodegradable scaffold and measure the width of attached gingiva after the clinical procedure. METHODS: This study was carried out on 4 patients (8 sites), with inadequate attached gingiva next to at least two teeth in contralateral quadrants of the same jaw. A biopsy of attached gingiva (epithelial + connective tissue) was taken using a surgical blade. Following culture of gingival fibroblasts, 250 × 103 cells in 250 μl nutritional medium were mixed with platelet-rich in growth factor (PRGF). Periosteal fenestration technique was done on one side (control) and tissue-engineered mucosal graft (test) was carried out on the contralateral side in each patient. The width of keratinized tissue, probing depth (PD) and width of attached gingiva were recorded at baseline and 3 months after the operation. RESULTS: An increased width of keratinized and attached tissue on all operated sites after 3 months was observed. These results showed the increased mean of the width of keratinized and attached gingiva to be 4.17 mm and 4.14 mm in test and 1.10 mm and 1.10 mm in control sites, respectively. The difference of keratinized and attached gingiva width between test and control sites was significant (P = 0.030, and P = 0.010 respectively). CONCLUSION: According to the results of this study, PRGF can be used as a scaffold to transfer gingival fibroblasts to recipient sites with significant clinical results