Aesthetic Smile Designing

‘Smile is a universal language, shared by people all over the world’. It conveys a lot without saying anything at all. Our smile is of utmost importance and dental aesthetics play a vital role to create it. Smile designing (SD) consists of various components that aim to develop the overall personality of a patient. To create an aesthetic, smile is an organised and systematic approach that is required to evaluate, diagnose and resolve the problems associated with it. The ultimate goal of an aesthetic make-over is to ensure a stable masticatory system, where the oral hard and soft tissues remain in harmony. Hence this chapter aims to focus on various aspects of SD that includes its goals, components, procedure and future prospects

Orthodontic-Periodontics: An Interdisciplinary Approach

Periodontal pathogenesis is a multi-factorial process and the orthodontist must recognize the clinical forms of inflammatory periodontal disease. Orthodontics is the most conservative and predictable treatment to improve numerous local etiological factors that contribute to periodontal disease including periodontal breakdown. Proper occlusal function and masticatory function are stimulatory to the gingival tissue and the attachment apparatus, while, conversely, a lack of function predisposes to disease that increases plaque retention and calculus formation along with gingival inflammation leading to increased loss of bony support. No matter how talented the orthodontist, a magnificent orthodontic correction can be destroyed by failure to recognize periodontal susceptibility. Therefore, identifying periodontally susceptible patients is critical for the outcome of the treatment. This chapter will highlight the importance of the short-term and long-term outcomes of orthodontic treatment, which are influenced by the patient’s periodontal status before, during and after active orthodontic therapy

The Value of Self-Ligating Brackets in Orthodontics: About the Damon Protocol

In orthodontics there has been a change in the treatment plan of crowding cases from extraction protocol. This was mainly due to the introduction of self-ligating bracket and temperature activated wires. Even though there are certain exceptions, the self-ligating bracket have evolved in orthodontics because of its advantages such as low friction, shorter treatment duration and increased efficacy. Damon’s self-ligating system has been in existence since 1930 but it has been well developed in the past 30 years with the introduction of newer systems. Damon’s self-ligating brackets have been designed to overcome the drawbacks of conventional bracket system and are often considered as the pinnacle of bracket technology. The main advantage of Damon’s system was low friction and shorter treatment duration. But the efficiency of the appliance is influenced by several factors such as Biomechanics, frequency of dental visits and patient comfort. The chapter will highlight the efficiency of the appliance, the various possible outcomes and its influence on the ease of orthodontic therapy

White Spot Lesions and Remineralization

As all practitioners are aware, the prevalence and incidence of dental caries keep increasing constantly and therefore early diagnosis and cessation of further progression would greatly help in maintaining the sound tooth structure. One of the earliest signs of dental caries is a white spot lesion, which is mostly missed, and only treated when the condition worsens. WSL are areas of demineralized enamel that occur due to a prolonged period of retained microbial biofilms most commonly associated in patients with poor oral hygiene and fixed orthodontic appliances. If caught early and intervened, WSLs can be reversed. Therefore, the diagnosis and treatment of WSL are of outmost importance, and this chapter will explain in detail various methods of diagnosing WSLs, its treatment protocol with the significance of remineralization of the same

Understanding local food systems in South Asia: An assessment approach and design

Home to one-quarter of humanity—one-fifth of whom are youth—South Asia has the world’s largest concentration of poverty and malnutrition (1–3). Despite producing one-quarter of the world’s consumed food, the region’s agrifood systems face formidable challenges in producing an adequate and affordable supply of the diverse foods needed for sustainable healthy diets (4,5). Unhealthy food consumption is rising, and farming systems are threatened by unsustainable groundwater withdrawal due to poorly developed food and energy policies. In addition, South Asia’s farmers are both contributors and victims of climate change and extreme weather, which contributes to rural out-migration—particularly of youth—resulting in rising labor scarcity and increased production costs. TAFSSA (Transforming Agrifood Systems in South Asia), a CGIAR Regional Integrated Initiative, aims to address these challenges by delivering actionable evidence and scalable innovations across these regions through a coordinated program of research and engagement from farmer to consumer. One of the roadblocks to addressing these challenges is the lack of credible and high-resolution data on food systems in the region. The TAFSSA food systems assessment aims to provide a reliable, accessible and integrated evidence base that links farm production, market access, dietary patterns, climate risk responses, and natural resource management in Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan. It is intended to be a multi-year assessment

Stability of Midline Diastema Closure by Frenectomy and Orthodontic Treatment: A Systematic Review

Introduction: Midline diastema is one of the most common aesthetic complaints in mixed and sometimes in permanent dentition stage. High frenal attachment is the major aetiological factor causing midline spacing. Combined frenectomy and orthodontic treatment can be done to close the midline diastema which may also increase the stability and reduce relapse. Aim: To assess the stability of midline diastema closure by using frenectomy and orthodontic treatment. Materials and Methods: A systematic review was conducted about clinical trials showing the stability of midline diastema closure by using frenectomy and orthodontic treatment, articles were searched from 1995 to 2022. A total of 521 articles were retrieved. Among these 433 articles were screened. The risk of bias was assessed for all the studies included in this review. Results: A total of five studies were included in the systematic review which has clinical trials showing the stability of midline diastema closure in patients having midline diastema of at least 0.5 mm. Four studies using orthodontic treatment has shown some amount of relapse and one study using orthodontic treatment and frenectomy has shown prominent closure of median diastema. Conclusion: Closure of maxillary median diastema is more prominent when it is performed by using combined frenectomy and orthodontic treatment than orthodontic treatment alone and the risk of relapse is minimal. However, furthermore clinical studies are required to confirm the stability of midline diastema closure by using orthodontic treatment and frenectomy

The Busboy Problem: Efficient Tableware Decluttering Using Consolidation and Multi-Object Grasps

We present the "Busboy Problem": automating an efficient decluttering of cups, bowls, and silverware from a planar surface. As grasping and transporting individual items is highly inefficient, we propose policies to generate grasps for multiple items. We introduce the metric of Objects per Trip (OpT) carried by the robot to the collection bin to analyze the improvement seen as a result of our policies. In physical experiments with singulated items, we find that consolidation and multi-object grasps resulted in an 1.8x improvement in OpT, compared to methods without multi-object grasps. See https://sites.google.com/berkeley.edu/busboyproblem for code and supplemental materials

Comparative Evaluation of Plaque Inhibitory and Antimicrobial Efficacy of Probiotic and Chlorhexidine Oral Rinses in Orthodontic Patients: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Background. Antimicrobial agents serve as an effective adjunct in plaque control, and chlorhexidine has been the gold standard. However, the philosophy that natural agents are better for children's oral health is on the rise. Probiotic technology represents a breakthrough approach to maintain oral health by utilizing natural beneficial bacteria commonly found in healthy mouths. Aim and Objective. To compare efficacy of probiotic and chlorhexidine oral rinses in orthodontic patients. Materials and Methods. 30 healthy patients undergoing fixed orthodontic treatment were randomly selected for the study by block randomization and allocation concealment and were divided into three groups: group a, 0.2% chlorhexidine mouthwash; group b, probiotic mouthwash; and group c, a control group. Results. Probiotic and chlorhexidine groups had significantly decreased plaque indices as compared to the control group. However, greater improvement was seen in the gingival indices than plaque indices with better results in the probiotic group than the chlorhexidine group. No statistical significance was observed in the streptococcus count of probiotic and chlorhexidine groups at the end of the intervention period. Conclusion. The comparison of probiotics to chlorhexidine has proven that probiotics are as effective as chlorhexidine as an adjunctive chemical plaque control agent