Evaluation of knowledge, attitudes, and clinical education of dental students about COVID-19 pandemic

Background The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a new viral respiratory illness, first identified in Wuhan province, China. Dental professionals and dental students are at an increased risk for these viruses from dental patients, as dental practice involves face-to-face communication with the patients and frequent exposure to saliva, blood, and other body fluids. Dental education can play an important role in the training of dental students, adequate knowledge and adopting attitudes regarding infection control measures. The aim of this study was to evaluate knowledge, attitudes, and clinical education of dental students about COVID-19 pandemic. Methods A total of 355 pre-clinical and clinical dental students (242 and 113, respectively, comprising 190 females and 165 males) at Fırat University Dentistry Faculty, in Elazığ, Turkey answered an online questionnaire about the biosafety procedures for and their attitudes to and knowledge of COVID-19. The study was conducted in March 2020, Turkey. The data gained were analyzed using descriptive statistical methods and chi-square test. Results Both the clinical and preclinical students were found to be afraid of infecting themselves and their environment with COVID-19, and the difference between them was statistically significant. Three quarters (74.9%) of the participants responded yes to the question of whether they thought that experiences related to COVID-19 affected them psychologically, with the differences between gender and clinical status were statistically significant. Responses to the question of which clinical rotation worried them more were 29.9% endodontics, 25.1% oral and maxillofacial surgery, 16.3% prosthesis, 15.2% periodontology, 6.8% restorative dentistry, 3.9% oral diagnosis and radiology, 1.7% pedodontics, and 1.1% orthodontics, with a significant difference between the preclinical and clinical students. Regarding the measures applied by the clinical students in their clinical rotation, the responses were 100% gloves and 100% mask (with 11.5% FFP3/N95 mask), 73.6% face protective shield and 37.1% safety glasses, and 49% bonnet and 16.8% disposable box, with 90.2% frequent hand washing, and 86.7% frequent hand antiseptic usage. Conclusions While students gave good responses regarding the standard measures they take to protect against transmission of COVID-19, their knowledge and attitudes about the extra measures they can take should be improved. For students to be least affected by fears associated with the disease, dental faculties should be ready to provide psychological services to those in need

The Relationship Between Maxillary Sinus Lateral Wall Thickness, Alveolar Bone Loss, And Demographic Variables: A Cross-Sectional Cone-Beam Computerized Tomography Study

Objectives: Sinus floor elevation and augmentation surgery is widely used as a reliable procedure to increase insufficient bone height in the posterior maxillary area. The purpose of the present clinical study was to determine the associations between periodontal bone loss (PBL), maxillary sinus lateral bone wall thickness, age, and gender using cone-beam computerized tomography (CBCT). Materials and Methods: The current retrospective study consists of 716 maxillary sinus CBCT images of 358 patients. The CBCT scans were assessed to detect the relationship between lateral wall thickness and PBL. ANOVA and Student t test analysis were used to determine the influence of PBL on sinus lateral wall thickness. Results: Sinus lateral wall thickness was significantly associated with PBL (p 0.05). However, there was a significant association between lateral wall thickness at 3 and 13 mm and age (p < 0.05). There were significant associations between PBL and age (p < 0.001), and PBL and gender (p < 0.05). Conclusions: PBL might have an association with maxillary sinus lateral bone wall thickness. Further studies are needed to confirm this possible relationship. (C) 2018 The Author(s) Published by S. Karger AG, BaselWoSScopu

The effect of demographic and disease variables on Schneiderian membrane thickness and appearance

Objectives. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of sinus mucosal thickening (MT) and mucosal appearance (MA) in a patient population as detected with cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) and to determine the effects of various disease and demographic factors on MT and MA

An Explainable Deep Learning Model to Prediction Dental Caries Using Panoramic Radiograph Images

Dental caries is the most frequent dental health issue in the general population. Dental caries can result in extreme pain or infections, lowering people’s quality of life. Applying machine learning models to automatically identify dental caries can lead to earlier treatment. However, physicians frequently find the model results unsatisfactory due to a lack of explainability. Our study attempts to address this issue with an explainable deep learning model for detecting dental caries. We tested three prominent pre-trained models, EfficientNet-B0, DenseNet-121, and ResNet-50, to determine which is best for the caries detection task. These models take panoramic images as the input, producing a caries–non-caries classification result and a heat map, which visualizes areas of interest on the tooth. The model performance was evaluated using whole panoramic images of 562 subjects. All three models produced remarkably similar results. However, the ResNet-50 model exhibited a slightly better performance when compared to EfficientNet-B0 and DenseNet-121. This model obtained an accuracy of 92.00%, a sensitivity of 87.33%, and an F1-score of 91.61%. Visual inspection showed us that the heat maps were also located in the areas with caries. The proposed explainable deep learning model diagnosed dental caries with high accuracy and reliability. The heat maps help to explain the classification results by indicating a region of suspected caries on the teeth. Dentists could use these heat maps to validate the classification results and reduce misclassification

In Vivo Evaluation of the Effects of B-Doped Strontium Apatite Nanoparticles Produced by Hydrothermal Method on Bone Repair

In the present study, the structural, morphological, and in vivo biocompatibility of un-doped and boron (B)-doped strontium apatite (SrAp) nanoparticles were investigated. Biomaterials were fabricated using the hydrothermal process. The structural and morphological characterizations of the fabricated nanoparticles were performed by XRD, FT-IR, FE-SEM, and EDX. Their biocompatibility was investigated by placing them in defects in rat tibiae in vivo. The un-doped and B-doped SrAp nanoparticles were successfully fabricated. The produced nanoparticles were in the shape of nano-rods, and the dimensions of the nano-rods decreased as the B ratio increased. It was observed that the structural and morphological properties of strontium apatite nanoparticles were affected by the contribution of B. A stoichiometric Sr/P ratio of 1.67 was reached in the 5% B-doped sample (1.68). The average crystallite sizes were 34.94 nm, 39.70 nm, 44.93 nm, and 48.23 nm in un-doped, 1% B-doped, 5% B-doped, and 10% B-doped samples, respectively. The results of the in vivo experiment revealed that the new bone formation and osteoblast density were higher in the groups with SrAp nanoparticles doped with different concentrations of B than in the control group, in which the open defects were untreated. It was observed that this biocompatibility and the new bone formation were especially elevated in the B groups, which added high levels of strontium were added. The osteoblast density was higher in the group in which the strontium element was placed in the opened bone defect compared with the control group. However, although new bone formation was slightly higher in the strontium group than in the control group, the difference was not statistically significant. Furthermore, the strontium group had the highest amount of fibrotic tissue formation. The produced nanoparticles can be used in dental and orthopedic applications as biomaterials

Is there a relation between dental anxiety, fear and general psychological status?

Background Dental anxiety is a widespread problem in many populations. This problem can be a barrier to dental care and may lead to poor oral health. Dental anxiety may be related to psychological status. Aims The aim of the present study was to assess the levels of dental anxiety, dental fear, Beck Depression, and state-trait anxiety according to age, gender and education level in patients at the periodontology clinic in the Diyarbakır Mouth and Dental Health Center. Study Design A total of 231 patients (115 males, 116 females) filled out dental fear scale (DFS), dental anxiety scale (DAS), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), state-trait anxiety inventory-state (STAI-S), and state-trait anxiety inventory–trait (STAI-T) questionnaires, and evaluations of DFS, DAS, BDI, STAI-S, and STAI-T were conducted according to age, gender, and education level. Results The mean DFS, DAS, BDI, STAI-T, and STAI –S were 45.64, 9.15, 13.16, 38.90, and 40.18, respectively. There was a significant association among DFS, DAS, BDI, STAI-S, and STAI-T (p < 0.05). These surveys scores were significantly higher in females than males (p < 0.05). The results of this study indicated that gender age and education level have important effects on DFS, DAS, BDI, STAI-S, and STAI-T (p < 0.05). Conclusion Dental anxiety and dental fear were found to be related to psychological status (BDI, STAI-S, and STAI-T) over time. There are some patients with unaddressed psychological distress