Gender differences in oral health attitudes and behaviour among Nigerian clinical dental students

Objective: This study aims to use the modified Hiroshima University Dental Behavior Inventory (HU-DBI) to determine the differences in oral health attitudes and behaviour between male and female clinical dental students at the clinical level in University of Benin.Method: This study included 141 clinical dental students made up of 85 males and 56 females of the University of Benin. Participation was voluntary and all participants remained anonymous. Demographic information was obtained including age, gender and years of study. The duration of study was from February to May 2010.A modified English version of HU-DBI survey which consists of 22 1temswith dichotomous responses (yes-no) was used in this study.Result: Of the total 154 clinical (4th, 5th and 6th years of study) dental students, a total of 141 clinical dental students participated in the study by completing the questionnaire giving a response rate of 91.56%. The age of the students ranged from 18 to 35 years with a mean age of 25.26 + 3.5 years. Statistically significant   differences (p <0.05) were found between males and females dental students for items: 2 (I have been to a   dentist office before), 14 (I worry about having bad breath), 17 (I eat a lot of refined sugar containing snacks in-between meals) and 19 (I worry about the colour of my teeth).The total mean score between male and female dental students was significant (P< 0.05).Conclusion: The results from this study were in agreement with studies in other countries showing that there are gender differences in some aspects of oral health attitudes and behaviour, and as a matter of fact, improving professional behaviour of the dental students is needed to be improved so as to improve their oral health attitude in order to serve as a positive model for their patients, families and friends. Key words: Oral health attitude, dental behaviour, dental student

Presentation of recurrent aphthous ulcer among patients in a tertiary hospital

Objectives: To determine the prevalence of recurrent aphthous ulcer and the gender and age distribution of the various subtypes of recurrent aphthous ulcer among patients utilizing dental services in University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH).Methods: A retrospective cross sectional study was carried out in Oral Medicine Clinic, UBTH. Data of patients with recurrent aphthous ulcers were collected and analyzed with IBM SPSS version 21.0 software. The association between age and gender distribution amongst patients was analyzed using Chi squared test. The level of significance was set at P< 0.05. Results: The prevalence of recurrent aphthous ulcer in the study was found to be 7.2%, with 54.5% of cases seen in male patients and 45.5% in female. Most of the patients (n=9, 41.0%) were within the 21-30 years age group. Eleven (50.0%) cases of recurrent aphthous ulcer were found to be of the minor subtype with more female preponderance (27.4%), while 8(36.4%) had the hepertiform subtype with equal gender distribution and the least (13.6%) was the major subtype found only in male patients. Conclusion: The study revealed an overall prevalence of 7.2% of recurrent aphthous ulcers with higher occurrence among males. Most of the patients were in the third decade of life. The most common subtype of recurrent aphthous ulcer was the minor type.Keywords:Recurrent aphthous ulcer, prevalence, outpatient department

Trends In Educational Evaluations In Nigeria: Issues And Challenges

The paper highlights the trends in educational evaluations in Nigeria starting from the pre-colonial Nigeria to the contemporary. Nigeria first practiced traditional educational evaluation but the system was criticized for lack of documented data. Then the colonial one – shot end of programme evaluation which was later found to be judgmental, breeds examination malpractice among other ills. The present continuous assessment system was introduced to take care of the anomalies and reposition our educational system. The new system is however not free from issues and challenges. These have been highlighted and recommendations made

Pre and post craniotomy psychosis and seizure disorder in a Nigerian medical doctor treated for meningioma. A case report.

This report highlights psychosis and seizures presenting at two distinct periods of time in the course of Meningioma, in a 43 year old Nigerian medical doctor and buttresses the fact that the risk for post operative seizures and other symptoms include a history of pre-operative seizures and the site of the tumor. The subject had a radiological Brain CT –Scan and Cranial MRI diagnosis of Temporo-parietal mass of Meningioma and based on clinical presentation of right sided weakness, 3 year history of deterioration of vision and brief awareness with altered behavior in the pre surgical period. He  had a Simpson 11 Excision craniotomy, at the University College Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria, in November 2015 but  represented at the Mental Health Department, Federal Medical Center, Yenagoa, in January, 2016, in the post surgical  period, with histories of abnormal behaviour, altered awareness of the environments with automatisms, visual  hallucinations and depressive features. He had been managed with Resperidone and Carbamazepine with good response  and without reoccurrence of pre-surgical features. Post operatively, his visual acuity has been restored and he has since resumed his duties as a medical practitioner, in the state medical service; suggesting an effective control with good outcome using medications.Keywords: Seizure, Complex Partial Seizure, Craniotomy, Automatisms, Meningiom

Assessing the nutritional status of beef cattle: current practices and future prospects

Accurate determination of nutritional and health status of animals is invaluable in modern animalagriculture. Body weights and body condition scoring are the commonly used methods of assessingnutritional status of animals. This paper discusses drawbacks these methods have and highlights thebenefits for using blood metabolites in assessing nutritional status of beef cattle. Blood metabolitelevels indicate the extent of metabolism of energy, proteins and other nutrients in animals. Glucose,cholesterol, non-esterified fatty acids, protein, urea, creatinine, albumin, globulin, minerals, liverenzymes and haematology can be used objectively, reliably and routinely to assess the nutritionalstatus of cattle. In Southern Africa, the use of these metabolites is rare due to lack of equipment forblood analysis and the high cost of analyzing the blood parameters. However, use of high value Ngunicattle in Southern Africa requires the use of blood parameters to accurately assess their nutritionalstatus. Several factors, such as physiological status of an animal, breed, nutrition, season and ageaffect levels of blood metabolites. Combining body weights, body condition scores and bloodmetabolites increase accuracy of assessing the nutritional state and welfare of beef cattle

Introducing Misoprostol for the Treatment of Incomplete Abortion in Nigeria

Despite legal restriction, induced abortions and resulting complications are common in Nigeria. Misoprostol administration for incomplete abortion was introduced in 3 Nigerian hospitals. The feasibility of the hospitals, patient and provider acceptability were assessed using questionnaire and interview guides administered to 205 women and 17 providers respectively. Amongst the women, 194 (95%) were satisfied and very satisfied with misoprostol, 176 (86%) would choose misoprostol again if another incomplete abortion occurred and 191 (93%) would recommend it to another woman in a similar situation. Providers were highly satisfied with misoprostol. The ease of use and ability to redirect surgical resources to more complicated issues were positive features cited by them. The providers agreed that integration of misoprostol was straightforward and required few resources. Therefore, misoprostol for incomplete abortion is safe, efficacious and acceptable to providers and patients. In remote areas of Nigeria with limited post-abortion care (PAC), misoprostol administration is an important potential PAC treatment modality. Features of misoprostol-low cost, room temperature stability, and ease of introduction-render it an important treatment option, particularly in low resource and rural settings

Regulatory mutations affecting the synthesis of cellulase in Pseudomonas fluorescens

Pseudomonas fluorescens, was cultured in basal medium containing carboxymethyl-cellulose (CMC) as inducer and glucose or glycerol as carbon and energy sources. Ethylmethanesulphonate (EMS) was used to mutagenize the wild-type organism to produce mutants. The isolated mutants were screened for the isolation of catabolite repression resistant mutants in the presence of 1% (w/v) glucose as carbon source. A total of fifty mutants were isolated. All the mutants produced cellulase in the presence of CMC as an inducer with specific activity of 0.057, 0.088 and 0.074 units/mg protein for the wild-type, catabolite repression resistant mutant4 (CRRmt4) and catabolite repression resistant mutant24 (CRRmt24), respectively. It was observed that addition of glucose or glycerol as carbon and energy sources to the culture medium resulted into considerable reduction in the cellulolytic activity. However, glycerol appeared to be a better carbon and energy source than glucose which inhibited enzyme expression in most of the strains used in this study. It was also observed that potent cellulase production occurred at the exponential growth phase of the organism. The isolated mutants were grouped into three classes based on their induction ratios namely; unimproved mutants, catabolite repression resistant mutants and mutants with highest induction ratio but sensitive to catabolite repression in the presence of high glucose concentration. The overall results obtained showed that cellulolytic activity in P. fluorescens was regulated by catabolite repression.Key words: Pseudomonas fluorescens, ethylmethanesulphonate, mutants, cellulose, catabolite repression, induction ratio.African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 4 (8), pp. 838-84