Validation and Application of an Online Pharmacy Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire

The world's applications of the Internet in public health services have expanded rapidly over the past two decades. In Romania, the online pharmacy was regulated and implemented in April 2019. The study aimed to validate a questionnaire about online pharmacy services and to assess patient satisfaction with these services. This cross-sectional descriptive observational qualitative study was conducted on 747 patients, 159 men and 588 women, aged between 18 and 85 years (mean age 31.44±11.324), who accessed online pharmacy services in Romania. The lot was made of convenience and "snowball" sampling. Patients completed an online questionnaire on google form [https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfSRGTcemtGLmsjfALAxKAMjnKMdt4DnCY0kauWi5cQQ8HAvw/viewform], with 10 items, structured in two sections regarding satisfaction with online pharmacy services and with financial aspects, between June 2022 and April 2023. The questionnaire is an adaptation to the specifics of Romanian pharmaceutical services of Johnson et al.'s questionnaire. The response scale of the questions was a five-category Likert type, ranging from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”. The questionnaire was previously validated and the statistical analysis was done in SPSS 27.0 software. The Inter-rater Agreement index was 61.9%; Scale Content Validity was 87.6% for clarity and 84.8% for relevance; the completeness index was 95.2%; Bartlett's Test of Sphericity was 157.451 with 45 degrees of freedom (p=0.000); the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin statistic was 0.667; The factorial analysis revealed 2 factors (with Eigen values >1.0), which are responsible for 71.3% of the variation of the 10 investigated items; The alpha-Cronbach coefficient for the entire questionnaire was 0.897. The mean score of the questionnaire was 3.8240±0.60278 and statistically significant differences were found according to the age groups (p=0.003) of the respondents and the frequency of accessing the online pharmacy (p<0.001). The questionnaire proved to be valid and showed the level of patient satisfaction with online pharmacy services

How aware is the public of the existence, characteristics and causes of language impairment in childhood and where have they heard about it? A European survey

Public awareness of language impairment in childhood (Developmental Language Disorder (DLD)) has been identified as an important determiner of research and clinical service delivery, yet studies directly assessing public awareness are lacking. This study surveyed awareness across 18 countries of Europe.Method: A questionnaire developed by an international team asked whether respondents had heard of language impairment affecting children, what they thought its manifestations and causes were and where they had heard of it. Respondents were also asked whether they had heard of autism, dyslexia, ADD/ADHD and speech disorder. The questionnaire was administered to members of the public in 18 European countries. A total of 1519 responses were obtained, spanning 6 age groups, 4 educational level groups and 3 income level groups.Results: Across all but one country, significantly fewer people had heard of language impairment than any of the other disorders (or 60 % compared to over 90 % for autism). Awareness tended to be lowest in Eastern Europe and greatest in North-Western Europe, and was influenced by education level, age and income level. People in countries with overall low and overall high awareness differed in their views on manifestations and causes. People had heard of language impairment and autism the same way - most frequently through the media, including Internet, and less frequently through their child’s school or a medical professional.Discussion: The study confirms that awareness of language impairment and knowledge of the breadth of its manifestations are low. It also suggests opportunities for how to increase awareness, including greater media coverage of language impairment and more efficient use of venues such as schools and healthcare. Ways in which cultural and linguistic differences may influence public awareness efforts are discussed, including the translatability of clinical labels and scientific terms. These may impact the acceptance of a common term and definition across all countries. As awareness campaigns are gaining momentum, the findings of this study can serve as a baseline against which to compare future findings.peer-reviewe

Orthodontic Micro-Implants – Technology And Clinical Applications

The introduction’s purpose of orthodontic therapy with micro-implants was to strengthen the skeletal anchorage. Thus, in the specialty literature appeared numerous studies on the evolution of orthodontic micro-implants, technology and diversification of clinical applications. The designs of micro-implants types used in orthodontics are presented, different methods of insertion, the steps of surgical procedures and various areas for placement of orthodontic micro-implants after clinical indications. It is presented an example of a clinical case requiring fixed orthodontic treatment using a micro-implant on the edentulous ridge for solving the problem of orthodontic anchorage

ORTHODONTIC MICRO-IMPLANTS – TECHNOLOGY AND CLINICAL APPLICATIONS

The purpose of orthodontic therapy with micro-implants was to strengthen the skeletal anchorage. Thus, in the specialty literature appeared numerous studies on the evolution of orthodontic micro-implants, technology and diversification of clinical applications. The designs of micro-implants types used in orthodontics are presented, different methods of insertion, the steps of surgical procedures and various areas for placement of orthodontic micro-implants after clinical indications. It is presented an example of a clinical case requiring fixed orthodontic treatment using a micro-implant on the edentulous ridge for solving the problem of orthodontic anchorage

The Statistical Study Of Malocclusions

The aim of this study is to achieve a statistical evaluation on a consignment of patients who have addressed the Dental ambulatory for children (Iaşi) for orthodontic consulting over a period of 10 years (1990 – 2000). The study has been performed on 375 patients (157 boys and 218 girls) aged between 4-24 years, with malocclusions. The diagnosis was established by clinical and paraclinical exams (cast and radiological measurements). Both removable and fixed appliances were used in conducting the treatment. The data base was created with MS Excel and the statistical evaluation was completed with the SPSS-15 and the EPI-Info-15 software, using descriptive statistics, bivalent correlations and linear regression. The Patients in need of orthodontic treatment presented malocclusion Class I 63,2%, Class II 28,3%, and Class III 5,8%. The group and isolated malocclusion proportion varied on the basis of the clinical manifestations asociated to the malocclusion Class. Based on age, the patients were applied with prophylactic treatment 3%, interceptive treatment 5% and curative 92%. The Pearson corelations made on the consigment of patients prooved the existence of a directly proportional link between the therapeutical results, the diagnosis of the malocclusions and the treatment chosen to be carried out. The Fisher test applied on the ortodontic treatment, the diagnosis Class and the therapeutical results proved to be significant in the statistics. The results of the prevalence maloclusion types are comparable with the ones from the speciality literature. The corelations that were carried out were based on medical reasoning. The regression model of prediction is probabilistic

Application of the Warping Methods in Dental Radiology Images Analysis

The “image warping” functions are useful techniques to match image objects when there are strong correlations between the positions of these objects in space. In order to do this, a function f, called warping function, is defined and is used to convert a given image into a reference known image. Several types of warping functions are described in the specialized literature – affine function, Procrustes transformation, bilinear transformation, perspective transformation and mosaic transformation. In this work, we present these functions and apply them to process several dental radiology images in a controlled manner, defined by a variation range of parameters

Comparative Analysis Regarding Two Methods For Predicting Lower Third Molar Impaction

Third lower molar is a major controversy in dental practice. The purpose of this study is to compare the reliability of two radiographic methods used to predict third lower molar prognosis of eruption or impaction. 109 children, with ages between 12 and 19 years were enrolled in our study. For all subjects we measured the retromolar available space and lower third molar inclination on the orthopantomograms and lateral cephalometric films. The measurement of the retromolar space has similar predictive value on both films, especially for those third molars with 100% chances of impaction or eruption. The correlation analysis for the angle between the long axis of the lower third molar and the mandibular plane measured on orthopantomograms, respectively on lateral cephalometric film showed that R2 = 0.439, which means significantly statistic direct correlation between this two variables

ON THE NECESSITY OF MINOR ORAL SURGERY PRETREATMENT ORTHODONTICS

The aim of the study was to establish the frequency of some minor oral surgery performed on both teeth and on the soft tissues, before any orthodontic treatment. The sample group included 587 patients (240 boys and 347 girls), divided into 3 categories. The data base was created wtih patient records, the statistical analyses being performed with the SPSS 17.0 software for Windows. The frequency of malocclusions with minor oral surgery pretreatment orthodontics was of 24%, out of which the surgical interventions on teeth represented 85.41% (serial extractions – 21.87%, orthodontic extractions – 41.66%, enucleation of third molars – 18.75%, discovery of impacted teeth – 2.08% and teeth enucleation – 1.04%) and the surgical interventions on the soft tissues represented 14.59% (labial frenectomy: 12.60%, lingual frenectomy: 1.04% and discovery of pericoronal tissues: 1.04%) The minor oral surgery pretreatment orthodontics upon both teeth and soft tissues are not quite frequent, yet they are necessary for a partial preparation of the patient for orthodontic therapy

STUDY OF FACIAL ASYMMETRY IN PATIENTS WITH DENTOMAXILLARY ANOMALIES

The study aimed at establishing the prevalence index of facial asymmetry by extraoral clinical examination of orthodontic patients. The group of study included 384 subjects, selected from the patients who required a specialized orthodontic treatment. Facial asymmetry was evaluated by the parallelism of the horizontal planes and deviation of the menton and nasal pyramid. The age, sex and ecological environment from which one came, the type of dentition and of dento-maxillary anomaly were registered for each patient in part. In the experimental group, facial asymmetry was present in 4.7% of patients, menton deviation in 5.7%, and nasal pyramid deviation - in 3.4%. Significant associations were established between facial asymmetry and the type of dento-maxillary anomaly, classes of age and type of dentition. The results obtained indicate that the prevalence of facial asymmetries in orthodontic patients is especially important for the clinician, as the deviations should be established prior to the initiation of any orthodontic – possibly surgical - treatment

HYPODONTIA OF PERMANENT TEETH IN A GROUP OF YOUNG PATIENTS FROM THE NORTH‐EASTERN REGION OF ROMANIA

The present study deals with the statistical evaluation of the number of congenitally missing teeth, of the affected dental groups, of the clinical forms and of hypodontia topography, performed on a group of patients from the North‐Eastern region of Romania, examined in the Ambu‐ latory of the “Sf. Spiridon” Universitary Emergency Hos‐ pital of Iaşi, between 1990‐2012. 111 patients (51 boys and 60 girls), with ages between 5 and 28 years, have been dia‐ gnosed with hypodontia of the permanent teeth (third molars excepted), by interview and by clinical and orto‐ pantomographic examinations. Statistical analysis made use of a SPSS 20.0 software. Four categories of hypodontia were discovered on the congenitally missing teeth, a high prevalence of the premolar (mandibular and maxillary) and maxillary incisor groups, as well as the predominant presence of the mono‐ and unidental clinical forms of hypodontia. Hypodontia was localized both unilaterally and bilaterally, on the four dental quadrants. Statistically significant correlations have been established among the number of teeth, the dental groups with agenesis and the clinical forms of hypodontia (p=0.000)