Influence of professional dental hygiene on oral and general health of retirement home residents: A comparative study

Objectives: The oral status of nursing home residents is poor. This could compromise general health. The controlled study investigated the influence of quarterly professional dental hygiene interventions on oral and general health of elderly. Material and Methods: 152 participants (mean age 84 years) of two residents' homes were examined. Parameters of general health, a questionnaire for caregivers, and oral parameters were evaluated at baseline and after 1 year. All caregivers were given one lesson on oral hygiene at baseline. In one home professional oral hygiene was performed every 3 months. Statistical analyses were done by Chi(2) test for nominal data and t-test for numeric data. Results: There were no significant differences between both homes regarding general health. Some oral parameters-if any-may be positively influenced by the intervention such as pocket depth, and Denture Hygiene Index and alterations of the mucosa. Conclusions: A quarterly professional hygiene is not able to influence general health and has-if any-little effect on oral health. This underlines the necessity for frequent interventions. An optimization of the health policy framework is necessary to allow caregivers more time for oral hygiene and to establish the accessibility of frequent professional health care for inhabitants in residents' homes

Antibacterial Effects of Modified Implant Abutment Surfaces for the Prevention of Peri-Implantitis—A Systematic Review

The aim of the present study was to systematically review studies investigating antibacterial implant abutment surfaces or coatings, which may suppress bacterial growth to prevent plaque-induced peri-implant inflammatory disease. Data were collected after identification of case, assay/laboratory procedure, predicate/reference standard and outcome (CAPO). Seven hundred and twenty (720) records were identified through data base searching. After screening nine publications fulfilled inclusion criteria and were included. The following surfaces/coatings showed antibacterial properties: Electrochemical surface modification of titanium by the anodic spark deposition technique; doxycycline coating by cathodic polarization; silver coating by DC plasma sputter; titanium nitride; zirconium nitride and microwave assistant nano silver coating. Since the current state of the literature is rather descriptive, a meta-analysis was not performed. While several abutment coatings showed to have antibacterial capacity, some of them also influenced the behavior of investigated human cells. None of the studies investigated the long-term effect of surface modifications. Since surface changes are the main contributing factor in the development of antibacterial effects, the biodegradation behavior must be characterized to understand its durability. To date there is no effective structure, material or strategy to avoid peri-implant inflammation used as clinical routine. Furthermore, clinical studies are scarce

Controlled angular redirection of light via nanoimprinted disordered gratings

International audienceEnhanced control of diffraction through transparent substrates is achieved via disordered gratings in a silica sol-gel film. Tailoring the degree of disorder allows tuning of the diffractive behavior from discrete orders into broad distributions over large angular range. Gratings of optical quality are formed by silica sol-gel nanoimprint lithography and an optical setup for the measurement of continuous diffraction patterns is presented. Sound agreement is found between measurements and simulation, validating both the approach for redirection of light and the fabrication process. The disordered gratings are presented in the context of improved interior daylighting and may furthermore be suited to a wide variety of applications where controlled angular redirection of light is desired

Low Loss and Magnetic Field-tuned Superconducting THz Metamaterial

Superconducting terahertz (THz) metamaterial (MM) made from superconducting Nb film has been investigated using a continuous-wave THz spectroscopy with a superconducting split-coil magnet. The obtained quality factors of the resonant modes at 132 GHz and 450 GHz are about three times as large as those calculated for a metal THz MM operating at 1 K, which indicates that superconducting THz MM is a very nice candidate to achieve low loss performance. In addition, the magnetic field-tuning on superconducting THz MM is also demonstrated, which offer an alternative tuning method apart from the existed electric, optical and thermal tuning on THz MM

Transport properties of ybco thin films near the critical state with no applied field

Transport measurements carried out on twinned ybco films are compared to the predictions of a previously proposed model suggesting that the vortices move along the films twin boundaries that behave as rows of Josephson weak links [P.Bernstein and J.F.Hamet, J.Appl.Phys.95 (2004) 2569]. The obtained results suggest that, except if the films are very thin, the twin boundaries consist of superimposed rows of weak links with mean height,ds, whose mean length along the TBs is an universal function of T/Tc, the reduced temperature. This conclusion yields a general expression for the critical surface current density of the films as a function of T/Tc and of the number of superimposed weak links rows, while the critical current density depends on ds. A comparison of the measurements reported by various authors shows that the nature of the substrate and the growth technique have both a strong effect on ds . The existence of superimposed weak links rows is attributed to extended defects generated by y2o3 inclusions.Comment: 33 pages, 13 figures; accepted for publication in Physica

Holographic planar lightwave circuit for on-chip spectroscopy

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