Factors Predicting a Child’s Dental Fear

The aim of the present study was to determine and assess the variables most involved in the etiology of a child’s dental fear. The study was performed on a sample of 89 children aged from 5.5 to 12.5 years and their mothers. The sample comprised 37 children with experience of dental trauma (19 boys and 18 girls) and 52 children without experience of dental trauma (28 boys and 24 girls). Corah Dental Anxiety Scale (DAS) was applied to evaluate the level of the child’s (CDAS) and mother’s (MDAS) dental anxiety. Broome’s Child Medical Fear Questionnaire (CMFQ) was used to assess the child’s fear of medical treatment. Hollingshead Two Factor Index of Social Position (ISP) was calculated to assess socio–economic status of the family. Cluster analysis differentiated one group of dentally anxious children with the highest level of maternal anxiety (MDAS = 14.44) and the lowest socio–economic status (ISP = 41.94). Another group of extremely anxious children (CDAS = 14.31) showed the highest fear of medical treatment (CMFQ = 22.08) and rather low socio–economic status. One group represented children with the lowest CDAS (5.63), lowest MDAS (8.46), and lowest CMFQ (13.54). Linear regression analysis showed high correlation between previous traumatic medical experiences and a child’s dental anxiety using the linear model CDAS’ = b0 + b1 CMFQ. The analysis revealed that a child’s dental fear mostly depends on early negative medical experience, while maternal dental anxiety and socio-economic circumstances seem to be of less importance

Factors Predicting a Child’s Dental Fear

The aim of the present study was to determine and assess the variables most involved in the etiology of a child’s dental fear. The study was performed on a sample of 89 children aged from 5.5 to 12.5 years and their mothers. The sample comprised 37 children with experience of dental trauma (19 boys and 18 girls) and 52 children without experience of dental trauma (28 boys and 24 girls). Corah Dental Anxiety Scale (DAS) was applied to evaluate the level of the child’s (CDAS) and mother’s (MDAS) dental anxiety. Broome’s Child Medical Fear Questionnaire (CMFQ) was used to assess the child’s fear of medical treatment. Hollingshead Two Factor Index of Social Position (ISP) was calculated to assess socio–economic status of the family. Cluster analysis differentiated one group of dentally anxious children with the highest level of maternal anxiety (MDAS = 14.44) and the lowest socio–economic status (ISP = 41.94). Another group of extremely anxious children (CDAS = 14.31) showed the highest fear of medical treatment (CMFQ = 22.08) and rather low socio–economic status. One group represented children with the lowest CDAS (5.63), lowest MDAS (8.46), and lowest CMFQ (13.54). Linear regression analysis showed high correlation between previous traumatic medical experiences and a child’s dental anxiety using the linear model CDAS’ = b0 + b1 CMFQ. The analysis revealed that a child’s dental fear mostly depends on early negative medical experience, while maternal dental anxiety and socio-economic circumstances seem to be of less importance

Aggression and Alcoholism

Alcoholism is today the greatest medical and social problem. Due to the fact that it is frequently connected with aggressiveness, it can also be defined as a great and frequent forensic problem. The authors investigate the issue to what extent aggressiveness is medically justified. They offer guidelines regarding this problem in accordance with their everyday experience and medical criteria

Aggression and Alcoholism

Alcoholism is today the greatest medical and social problem. Due to the fact that it is frequently connected with aggressiveness, it can also be defined as a great and frequent forensic problem. The authors investigate the issue to what extent aggressiveness is medically justified. They offer guidelines regarding this problem in accordance with their everyday experience and medical criteria

Factors Predisposing to Early Childhood Caries (ECC) in Children of Pre-School Age in the City of Zagreb, Croatia

The aim of this study was to investigate factors predisposing to early childhood caries (ECC) in pre-school children in the city of Zagreb, Croatia. The investigation was carried out on the sample of 145 children (77 boys and 68 girls) aged between 2 and 5 years, including clinical examination of dental status and survey on the habits among the parents. The overall prevalence of ECC was 30%: in girls it was 25%, and in boys 48%. The study on the risk factors was designed as a classic case-control study. The mean value of dmfs index among the cases amounted to 8.6, in comparison to 5.2 in the control group (p<0.05). Bottle-feeding did not represent a significant risk, but night consumption of sweet beverages after first 24 months and the lack of introduction of teeth-brushing habit after first 24 months did (p<0.001 for both predictors). The study revealed the importance of early introduction of teeth-brushing and giving up the nightly consumption of sweet beverages in prevention of ECC

Hypohidrotic Ectodermal Dysplasia: Dental Features and Carriers Detection

Ectodermal dysplasia is a heterogeneous condition characterized by affected ectodermal structures, among which the teeth and skin with its derivatives (hair, sweat glands) are the most frequent. The aim of this work is to present the analysis of dental traits in five families (affected boys and their mothers) with hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia (HED), and to evaluate the importance of orofacial and dental findings in the determination of female HED gene carriers. Hypodontia (oligodontia) was found in all the patients. The mothers, gene carriers, had either hypodontia or a reduced size of teeth with a particular morphological, peg shape. In patients with hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia the deciduous second molar teeth were mostly affected by taurodontism. The characteristic dental finding in heterozygous females of the mandibular peg shaped incisors and canines, as well as of hypodontia or peg shaped upper lateral incisors can be used as a reliable criterion for the detection of HED gene carriers

Metagenomic Profiling Reveals Lignocellulose Degrading System in a Microbial Community Associated with a Wood-Feeding Beetle

The Asian longhorned beetle (Anoplophora glabripennis) is an invasive, wood-boring pest that thrives in the heartwood of deciduous tree species. A large impediment faced by A. glabripennis as it feeds on woody tissue is lignin, a highly recalcitrant biopolymer that reduces access to sugars and other nutrients locked in cellulose and hemicellulose. We previously demonstrated that lignin, cellulose, and hemicellulose are actively deconstructed in the beetle gut and that the gut harbors an assemblage of microbes hypothesized to make significant contributions to these processes. While lignin degrading mechanisms have been well characterized in pure cultures of white rot basidiomycetes, little is known about such processes in microbial communities associated with wood-feeding insects. The goals of this study were to develop a taxonomic and functional profile of a gut community derived from an invasive population of larval A. glabripennis collected from infested host trees and to identify genes that could be relevant for the digestion of woody tissue and nutrient acquisition. To accomplish this goal, we taxonomically and functionally characterized the A. glabripennis midgut microbiota through amplicon and shotgun metagenome sequencing and conducted a large-scale comparison with the metagenomes from a variety of other herbivoreassociated communities. This analysis distinguished the A. glabripennis larval gut metagenome from the gut communities of other herbivores, including previously sequenced termite hindgut metagenomes. Genes encoding enzymes were identified in the A. glabripennis gut metagenome that could have key roles in woody tissue digestion including candidate lignin degrading genes (laccases, dye-decolorizing peroxidases, novel peroxidases and β- etherases), 36 families of glycoside hydrolases (such as cellulases and xylanases), and genes that could facilitate nutrient recovery, essential nutrient synthesis, and detoxification. This community could serve as a reservoir of novel enzymes to enhance industrial cellulosic biofuels production or targets for novel control methods for this invasive and highly destructive insect