Photodynamic Therapy in Root Canal Disinfection: A Case Series and Mini-Review: Photodynamic Therapy in Root Canal Disinfection

Introduction: Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is now a widely used treatment modality in many fields of dentistry, including endodontics. The most common application of PDT in endodontics is to disinfect root canals. The purpose of this study was to present the experience of using PDT in root canal disinfection of three patients.Case Presentation: Three patients were referred to the Endodontics Department of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences and were treated using 0.1 mg/mL Toluidine Blue (FotoSan® agent; CMS Dental, Denmark) irradiated with a light-emitting diode (LED) lamp (FotoSan®; CMS Dental, Denmark) with a mean wavelength of 630 nm and a mean power density of 3 W/cm2 over two 30-second periods.Conclusion: PDT using LED lighting can be used in conjunction with conventional root canal treatment (RCT) to achieve great results. Doi:10.34172/jlms.2022.1

Can Children Enhance Their Family’s Health Knowledge? An Infectious Disease Prevention Program

Objective: The purpose of this study is to propose an innovative method of knowledge transfer that aims to improve health literacy about pediatric infectious diseases prevention in families. Children have an appreciable role in this scheme. Methods: This study is a before and after trial that has been conducted in Hamedan in 2009. After changing seven infectious disease topics into childish poems, we selected five kindergartens randomly and taught these poetries to the children. Teaching process held after a pretest containing 24 questions that examined 103 of parents about mentioned topics. The same post-test was given after 4 months of teaching process. Findings: The mean of correct answers to the pretest was 59.22% comparable with 81.00% for post-test (P<0.00). Gender and knowledge degree could not change the results significantly. Assuming one’s correct answers to the questions as his/her Knowledge Mark, the mean of this variable increased to 5.32 by this method. Conclusion: This cost-effective and joyful method had successful results in promoting health knowledge. Children are able to play an active role in family’s health situation. Learning within family atmosphere without any obligations makes our scheme a solution for paving the knowledge transferring way

A study on wheat grain zinc, iron, copper, and manganese concentrations and their relationship with grain yield in major wheat production areas of Iran

Iran is a country with different soils and climatic zones that affect the nutrient concentration in the produced wheat. Since wheat is one major component of Iranian diet, this survey was performed to investigate the concentration of micronutrients including copper (Cu), manganese (Mn), iron (Fe), and zinc (Zn) in wheat grains of Iran. For this purpose, a total of 1876 grain samples were collected from the wheat grown lands of Iran and analyzed for the micronutrients. Results revealed that the grain yields were found 5.50 and 2.02 ton ha−1 for irrigated and rainfed wheat, respectively. The average concentration of Zn, Fe, Cu, and Mn in the wheat was 26, 32.76, 34.7, and 5.94 mg kg−1 respectively. The spatial distribution of Zn, Fe, and Mn showed that the wheat produced in the south and southwestern, east and southwestern, and east were more enriched, respectively. While, the wheat produced in the central, south, and southwestern areas contained a higher concentration of Cu. Moreover, results showed that the average concentration of Zn (26 mg kg−1) and Fe (32.76 mg kg−1) was lower than the recommended concentrations for human health (i.e. Zn = 41 mg kg−1; Fe = 57 mg kg−1), which indicates a deficiency of these elements in the wheat grains. Due to the calcareous nature of the soils of Iran, alkaline pH, and low amount of organic matter, the bioavailability of nutrients are low and deficiency symptoms are revealed. Moreover, by increasing grain yield the concentration of grain elements decreases, which shows the effect of new varieties on intensifying the nutrient deficiency. The present study revealed the nutritional status of wheat grown in Iran and confirmed deficiency of Fe and Zn. This study provided information to the decision-makers to overcome this problem by employing proper strategies such as fortification and enrichment