Oral health of seafarers - a review

The research base needs to be expanded to cover all seafarers. Dental professional expertise should be sought in policy and guideline development relevant to oral health. A strategy comprising preventive, screening, and treatment service components should be developed and a certificate of dental health introduced. Funding strategies in a complex environment of transnational stakeholders for the improvement of oral-health services for seafarers are needed. Aspects of military oral health care systems could be an example for civilian operators

Cruise medicine: the dental perspective on health care for passengers during a world cruise

BACKGROUND. Although more than 100 million passengers have taken a cruise since 1980, it is not known what dental treatment needs occur at sea. METHODS. The routine dental documentation of a 2-month period at sea on a cruise ship carrying 1,619 passengers was analyzed. The subjects for the study were 57 passengers (3.5% of 1,619), with a mean age of 71 years (+/-9.8 y). Age, gender, number of natural teeth and implants, prosthetic status, diagnosis, treatment performed, percentage of emergency and routine procedures, number of appointments, duration of appointment, time since last visit to the dentist, and cabin category as indicator of socioeconomic status were extracted. Oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) was measured using the 14-item Oral Health Impact Profile. RESULTS. Passengers had a mean number of 20 natural teeth plus substantial fixed and removable prosthodontics. Emergency dental treatment accounted for 97% of the chairside time. The three most frequent emergency diagnoses were defective restorations (36%), pulpal disease (20%), and defective prosthesis and caries (both 11.5%). Common emergency therapies provided were complex surgical-prosthodontic rehabilitation, various endodontic treatments, and extractions. Per 1,000 persons/month, passengers required 21.6 emergency plus 2.5 routine appointments; 49% of passengers had seen a dentist within 3 months before going to sea. CONCLUSIONS. Passengers do attend their dentist for routine care/checkups before the voyage, yet experience complex dental emergencies. This is due to the presence of a high number of restorations that fail unexpectedly. Some failures are so severe that they would have forced the passenger to abort the cruise had there been no dental service available. The ease of access to quality dental care may explain the relatively low level of perceived problems as characterized by OHRQoL scores

The Effect of a Masticatory Muscle Training Program on Chewing Efficiency and Bite Force in People with Dementia

Until now, no study has investigated the effects of masticatory muscle training on chewing function in people with dementia. This study aimed to investigate whether physiotherapeutic exercises for the masticatory muscles have an influence on chewing efficiency and bite force in people with dementia. In a clinical trial with stratified randomization subjects were assigned to three groups based on the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE: group 1-28-30, group 2-25-27, group 3-18-24). Each group was divided into an experimental (ExpG, intervention) and control group (ConG, no intervention). As intervention a Masticatory Muscle Training (MaMuT) (part 1: three physiotherapeutic treatments and daily home exercises, part 2: daily home exercises only) was carried out. Chewing efficiency and bite force were recorded. The MaMuT influenced the masticatory performance regardless of the cognitive state. Bite force increased in ExpG 1 and 2. Without further training, however, the effect disappeared. Chewing efficiency increased in all ExpG. After completion of the training, the ExpG 2 and 3 showed a decrease to initial values. Subjects of ExpG 1 showed a training effect at the final examination, but a tendency toward the initial values was observed. ExpG 3 seemed to benefit most from the physiotherapeutic exercises in terms of improving chewing efficiency by the end of the intervention phase. ExpG 1 showed the greatest gain in bite force. The MaMuT program is a potential method of improving masticatory performance in people with cognitive impairment or dementia when used on a daily basis

An Evaluation of Interaction Techniques for the Exploration of 3D-Illustrations

this paper we describe a practical study in which we set out to evaluate the major features of the Zoom Illustrator and to establish the value of each in facilitating access to 3dinformatio