Maternal Periodontitis and Low Birth Weight Babies

Introduction: Low birth weight in developing countries is primarily because of poor maternal health and nutrition. If maternal health plays such an important role in the child’s development, all the means of preventing problems among the pregnant women is of utmost importance. Aim: This study was conducted to assess the relationship between maternal periodontitis and the weight of the baby after birth. Materials and methods: The subjects in the present longitudinalstudy were chosen from the outpatients of Gynecology Department of the People’s Hospital over a period of 1 month. The periodontal status was assessed based on community periodontal index (CPI) and loss of attachment (LOA). Results: All the participants demonstrated periodontal pockets with more than half the population (56%) presenting shallow pockets (pockets of 4-5 mm). Conclusion: In the present study, periodontal status of the mother was significantly related to delivery of low birth weight babies. Thus it can be concluded that periodontitis may be associated with delivery of low birth weight babies

Indirect assessment of comprehensive care clinics course: Sixth year dental students perspective

BackgroundHealth care providers often lack a comprehensive approach towards treating patients. The comprehensive care clinics course model in dental curriculum is an integrated course which mainly focuses on the comprehensive oral health care of a patient. However, students have fear, apprehension and stress as the course involves significant amount of documentation, management and coordination with the patient.AimsThe aim of this study was to assess the students’ feedback on several aspects of the Comprehensive Care Clinics course from two academic year cohorts.MethodsThe present study is a questionnaire based study which has been conducted by collecting the data from two cohorts 2018-19 and 2019-20 final year students from the Dentistry program.ResultsThe respondents responded that the communication among the staff from various specialities in cohort 1 was excellent for 7.1 per cent, very good in 15.2 per cent, good for 14.7 per cent, fair for 6.5 per cent and poor for 1.6 per cent and in cohort 2 excellent for 6 per cent, very good for 12.5 per cent, good for 26.1 per cent, fair for 8.1 per cent and poor for 2.2 per cent.ConclusionThe study concludes that the students strongly agree that there was a shortage of allocated time for the course, the students disagree about the outcome of the result. The students have responded to have ease of laboratory access for the cases and they expressed to have a good satisfaction about the overall score for the course in all respects

Role of Dentists in Creating a Tobacco free Society

“Giving up smoking is easy I have done it a thousand times” is an adage that puts in perspective the difficulties in tobacco cessation. Tobacco is a global agent of death [1]. The tobacco epidemic is one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced, killing around 6 million people a year. More than 5 million of those deaths are the result of direct tobacco use while more than 600 000 are the result of non-smokers being exposed to second-hand smoke. Nearly 80% of the more than 1 billion smokers worldwide live in low- and middle-income countries, where the burden of tobacco-related illness and death is heaviest [2]. Globally the toll of deaths due to tobacco is on a rise exponentially.</p

Knowledge, Attitude and Practices on COVID-19 among Patients Attending a Private Dental College in Jeddah

Introduction: The close proximity to the patient’s oropharyngeal region and also involved aerosol production presents a potential high risk for the transmission of disease across patients and dental health practitioners. This requires dentists and patients to be aware of the risks of contracting coronavirus from the patient’s perspective when they seek dental treatment. Aim: To assess the knowledge, attitude and practices of the patients toward the dental visits during the pandemic crisis. Materials and Methods: The present study was a cross-sectional questionnaire-based study conducted in IBN Sina National College, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia from 6th July, 2020 to 24th July 2020. All the patients who had visited the dental clinics attached to the dental college were sent online google docs form with a consent through WhatsApp. Questions were divided into 2 sections, one section related to demographic data of participants like age, gender, education level, frequency of dental visits and the other section related to patients’ perspective with regards to the coronavirus infection in the dental set up. The results were analysed using SPSS version 23. Results: The questionnaire was sent to all the patients online and all of them had responded to the survey. Majority of the patients {1757 (80.9%)} have knowledge about the COVID-19 disease signs, symptoms, transmission and complications. Among these respondents 6.6% (144) had routinely visited a dentist, 8.8% (192) had sometimes visited a dentist and only 0.3% (7) visited a dentist only once and they generally try to avoid visiting a dentist. Conclusion: At a clinical level, education is limited only to the patients who approach the dentists. At a community level, government, dental colleges and dentists have to take several measures in educating the public in equipping them with health promotional materials. Community-based online programs should be planned and implemented by different levels of administration

Tobacco cessation and counseling: A dentists′ perspective in Bhopal city, Madhya Pradesh

Introduction: Dental team has high potential to help smokers to better oral/general health but to achieve this; they need to be clear about their role. Considering the importance of tobacco cessation, the authors carried out this study aimed at assessing the role, knowledge, current practices, different barriers, and tools to overcome the same as perceived by dentists in Bhopal city. Materials and Methods: A self-administered structured, coded questionnaire was distributed to 200 private practitioners and the teaching staff in all the dental colleges in Bhopal city. Results: Out of 200 dentists to whom questionnaire was administered, 168 responded within a week′s time resulting in a high response rate of 84%. A total of 97% of the dentists agreed that it is the duty of every dentist to advice patients about tobacco cessation. A total of 58% strongly agree that formal training will be an effective tool to provide the guidelines to dentists in tobacco cessation and counseling. Conclusion: Monitoring of effective planning and execution of these programs by appropriate authorities at regular intervals is vital for successful achievement of the goal of "Tobacco Free Society.