Mothers view about oral health status, oral hygiene behaviors, and dental services utilization of their children with hearing impairment attending special schools

Aim: Parents are the principal decision-makers regarding their child's health. Awareness of mothers� view about their children's health, particularly with special health care needs (SHCN) (include hearing impaired children), is essential for health care providers. Therefore, the present study aimed to assess the mothers view about oral health status, oral hygiene practices, and dental services utilization of their children with hearing impairment attending special schools. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted between May and September 2020 among mothers of students with hearing impairment attending special schools. Also, the telephone structured interview was used to gathering mothers view. Results: 57.4 of the mothers rated their children's oral health status as excellent or good, 27.9 as moderate, and 14.7 as poor. About half of the mothers (49.2) stated that their children used toothbrushes once daily, and 15 use dental floss. Also, 54 of the children visited the dentist before this survey's conduct. Conclusion: The findings of the present study suggest that children with hearing impairment can also have good oral health status and behaviors. These results may be attributed to the fact that the study sample was taken from two special schools. Also, only the mothers� perception assessment of students� oral health status was done. Further studies are required to increase the strength of evidence. © 2021 Special Care Dentistry Association and Wiley Periodicals LL

Synthesis and characterization of electrospun polyvinyl alcohol nanofibrous scaffolds modified by blending with chitosan for neural tissue engineering

Sanaz Naghavi Alhosseini1, Fathollah Moztarzadeh1, Masoud Mozafari1, Shadnaz Asgari2, Masumeh Dodel3, Ali Samadikuchaksaraei4,5, Saeid Kargozar6, Newsha Jalali11Biomaterials Group, Faculty of Biomedical Engineering (Center of Excellence), Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran; 2Neural Systems and Dynamics Laboratory, Department of Neurosurgery, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA; 3Nanotechnology and Tissue Engineering Department, Stem Cell Technology Research Center, Tehran, Iran; 4Department of Biotechnology and Cellular and Molecular Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; 5Biological Systems Engineering Laboratory, Centre for Process Systems Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London, London, UK; 6Department of Biotechnology, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IranAbstract: Among several attempts to integrate tissue engineering concepts into strategies to repair different parts of the human body, neuronal repair stands as a challenging area due to the complexity of the structure and function of the nervous system and the low efficiency of conventional repair approaches. Herein, electrospun polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)/chitosan nanofibrous scaffolds have been synthesized with large pore sizes as potential matrices for nervous tissue engineering and repair. PVA fibers were modified through blending with chitosan and porosity of scaffolds was measured at various levels of their depth through an image analysis method. In addition, the structural, physicochemical, biodegradability, and swelling of the chitosan nanofibrous scaffolds were evaluated. The chitosan-containing scaffolds were used for in vitro cell culture in contact with PC12 nerve cells, and they were found to exhibit the most balanced properties to meet the basic required specifications for nerve cells. It could be concluded that addition of chitosan to the PVA scaffolds enhances viability and proliferation of nerve cells, which increases the biocompatibility of the scaffolds. In fact, addition of a small percentage of chitosan to the PVA scaffolds proved to be a promising approach for synthesis of a neural-friendly polymeric blend.Keywords: polyvinyl alcohol, chitosan, polymer blending, nanofibrous scaffolds, neural tissue engineerin

Improved cellular response on functionalized polypyrrole interfaces

Neuroregeneration strategies involve multiple factors to stimulate nerve regeneration. Neural support with chemical and physical cues to optimize neural growth and replacing the lesion neuron and axons are crucial for designing neural scaffolds, which is a promising treatment approach. In this study, polypyrrole polymerization and its functionalization at the interface developed by glycine and gelatin for further optimization of cellular response. Nanofibrous scaffolds were fabricated by electrospinning of polyvinyl alcohol and chitosan solutions. The electrospun scaffolds were polymerized on the surface by pyrrole monomers to form an electroactive interface for further applications in neural tissue engineering. The polymerized polypyrrole showed a positive zeta potential value of 57.5 ± 5.46 mV. The in vitro and in vivo biocompatibility of the glycine and gelatin-functionalized polypyrrole-coated scaffolds were evaluated. No inflammatory cells were observed for the implanted scaffolds. Further, DAPI nucleus staining showed a superior cell attachment on the gelatin-functionalized polypyrrole-coated scaffolds. The topography and tuned positively charged polypyrrole interface with gelatin functionalization is expected to be particularly efficient physical and chemical simultaneous factors for promoting neural cell adhesion. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc