A 73.1 percent response rate was obtained in a postal questionnaire survey conducted among Malaysian dentists to assess their attitudes and needs for continuing dental education. It appeared that on an average the Malaysian dentist spent very little time on continuing education,reading journals and participation in professional dental meetings.The need for continuing education was strongly evident as almost all dentists indicated that such activities be further developed in Malaysia. Crown and Bridgework, Oral Surgery and Orthodontic appeared to be areas in which more continuing education were required.
Fixed functional appliances are non-compliance dependent devices, which can assist the correction of Class II malocclusion. The mechanics of the fixed functional appliances may vary depending on the type of device used. We report the observed biomechanical effects of using the ForsusTM Fatigue Resistant Device (FRD) fixed functional appliance. The patient was a 14-year-old female presented with a Class II division I malocclusion on a Class II skeletal base. The malocclusion was complicated by a 10mm overjet and increased traumatic overbite. She was treated with the ForsusTM FRD appliance worn for 5 months after the alignment with fixed appliances (0.022” X0.028” MBT prescriptions) and finished on a non-extraction base. Dento-alveolar changes were the main contribution to the correction of the malocclusion and simultaneously improved the patient’s profile in the end of treatment. In conclusion, ForsusTM FRD appliance can be suggested to effectively correct Class II malocclusion.
Severe gingival recession caused by dehiscence usually present a challenging task to the clinician as any mucogingival surgery without bony regeneration will not 'prevent the condition from recurring. The procedures of guided tissue regeneration ( GTR ) which allow regeneration of the lost periodontium may offer some solution to the condition. This paper reports on the use of a non-resorbable GTR membrane to treat an isolated lower incisor gingival recession associated with dehiscence.
The diagnosis of oral cancer have been variously reported as being due to delay by clinicians, patients or both. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the referral pattern of 65 patients eventually diagnosed as having oral squamous cell carcinoma. The results showed that 50% of the patients delayed seeking professional help for more than 3 months after being aware of the lesion. The majority of the patients consulted medical practitioners as the first source of help. The mean clinicians' and patients' delay were 10.3 weeks and 28.9 weeks respectively. Dental practitioners showed a tendency to refer on more advanced lesions compared to the medical practitioners. The findings raise the concern that lack of patients' awareness, misdiagnosis by clinicians and late detection by dental practitioners prevail thus calling for urgent measures towards early detection of the disease.
This paper revisits the prescription of drugs for pregnant patients and the dental and oral changes during pregnancy. The management of these patients is also outlined. Emphasis should be placed on prevention of dental problem during pregnancy.
The existence of numerous World Wide Web (WWW) sites devoted to dental education is proof that dental educators have been utilizing the pedagogical potential of information technology. Despite the availability of an immense quantity of information on the Internet, performing a search is often a complex, uncoordinated and time-consuming procedure, thus the usefulness of a guide on a topic of interest. Forty WWW sites devoted to dental education have been located using search engines. They were evaluated and classified as follows: guides, electronic publications, databases, patient education and undergraduate education; and according to subjects such as oral biology, morphology, histology, microbiology oral pathology, oral and maxillofacial surgery, radiology, periodontology, dental materials, orthodontics and neuroscience. The extensiveness and quality of some of these sites make them useful resources and knowledge banks for the teacher and the student.
Several national studies have been undertaken to assess the prevalence of fluorosis utilizing the Dean's Index. However, the latest national study undertaken in 1997 (1) had utilized the DDE Index and hence does not allow comparisons to be made with the earlier set of national data. This cross-sectional study was undertaken to evaluate the prevalence of dental fluorosis using the Dean's Index in a sample of 12-13 year-old schoolchildren and to assess the relationship between fluorosis and their caries status. The sampling procedure involved a multistage, clustered and stratified random sampling. The sample comprised of 1519 schoolchildren attending 20 secondary government and governmentaided schools in fluoridated urban and rural areas of Klang District in Peninsular Malaysia. There were 772 males and 747 females. Each subject was administered a questionnaire to elicit the demographic information. Intra-oral examination for dental fluorosis and caries was performed for each subject. The results demonstrated that more than half of the subjects (54 %) had no fluorosis, 13.2% had questionable fluorosis, 31.3% had very mild to mild fluorosis, 1.4% had moderate fluorosis and only 0.1 % exhibited severe fluorosis. The mouth prevalence was 32.8 %. The Community Fluorosis Index was 0.48 indicating a borderline score for public health significance. Fifty-two percent of the children were caries free. The mean DMFT for all subjects was 1.1, F(0.6) being the main component. Although girls had a higher mean DMFT score as compared to boys this difference was not significant. Significant differences in DMFT scores were observed by urbani rural distributions and ethnic groups (p < 0.01). No significant correlation was found between fluorosis and caries status. It is concluded that dental fluorosis does not appear to be a public health problem. Further coordinated in-depth research using similar criterias for assessing dental fluorosis is highly recommended.
Endoseous Implant insertion for the replacement of missing teeth is the state of the art at present times. An understanding of the biology of the perimplant tissues is imperative for the overall success in the dental rehabilitation of a patient with fixture supported prosthesis. The dental implant tissue interface comprises bone, both cortical and cancellous bone; supracrestal connective tissue and the epithelial attachment. A comprehensive review of the response of bone during the postoperative or healing phase, the loading or remodelling phase and during the steady phase is described.
Currently many dental implant systems with varied and numerous components are available commercially, and with new implant systems and designs emerging, it is essential that the user understands that any system selected should be based on sound scientific principles and capable of osseoil!tegration. This has been defined in many different ways, with biomaterial, biological and biomechanical factors being the main considerations. The final restoration is based on both biological tissue and mechanical components. As the success of osseointegration is based on the clinical outcome, clinicians must ensure that the stresses that the superstructure, implant, and surrounding bone are subjected to are within the tolerable limits of the various components, even though the degree of tolerance has not yet been fully defined.
Dental fear is a hindrance to the effective provision of oral health care and causes patients to delay, or even avoid necessary care altogether. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and level of dental fear, to identify specific fear provoking stimuli and also to explore the avoidance behaviour among the respondents. A cross-sectional study was conducted on a sample of 407 antenatal mothers utilizing the Kleinknecht's Dental Fear Survey Questionnaire. The overall prevalence of dental fear was 94.1% of which 67.6% of the subjects reported low fear levels, 26.5% were moderately fearful while none were highly fearful. Only 5.9% of the subjects reported no fear. The drill and anaesthetic needle were identified as the most fear provoking objects. Subjects with moderate fear were about 6.4 times (OR=6.39; 95%CI 3.81-10.75) more likely to avoid making appointments and 6 times (OR=6.05; 95% CI 3.20-11.50) more likely to cancel appointments compared to subjects with lower levels of fear. This. study indicates that dental fear is a common problem among antenatal mothers contributing to poor dental attendance.
Aim: Self-assessment based on benchmarked professional standards is an excellent tool to assist in improving the dental curriculum. Areas of strength and weaknesses can be identified. It can also act as a baseline standard when significant changes are introduced to the dental curriculum. The aims of this prospective cross-sectional study was to investigate self-assessed confidence of final year dental undergraduates in paediatric dentistry enrolled at University of Malaya in 2013. Methods: 65 undergraduates completed anonymised questionnaires which were formulated based on expected professional competencies in three domains namely clinical skills, patient management, and professional development and clinical governance. Visual analogue score (VAS) represented by a 10cm line with score ‘0’ no confidence at all and ‘10’ complete confidence was used to measure the level of confidence. Results: The overall analysis of self-assessed confidence was very positive with median VAS ≥ 5cm in; clinical skills, 7.66±1.31cm (range=2.41–9.97cm: n=62; 95.4%), patient management 7.73±1.27cm (range=5.09–9.95cm: n=64; 100.0%), and professional development and clinical governance, 8.13±1.21cm (range=5.22–10.00cm: n=64; 100.0%). High confidence was reported for routine dental care (fillings and preventive care) while lower confidence reported for basic life support (median VAS=5.65cm) and pulp therapy for immature permanent teeth (median VAS=5.95cm). Conclusions: The final year dental undergraduate students of the University of Malaya appear to have good overall self-assessed confidence in core areas in paediatric dentistry.
A postal questionnaire concerning the Malaysian dentists' attitudes towards their patients yielded a 73.1% response rate. The results of this study indicated that a majority of dentists felt that patients had more negative than positive attributes. Private practitioners attributed more negative traits to their patients than their public sector colleaques. About 88% of dentists indicated that the most negative patient attribute was fear of pain. Fear of pain was perceived to be stronger than fear of the dentist (62.2%). likewise the patients' inability to seek treatment soon enough (78.4%), to come for regular check-up (72.7%) and to follow advice on personal oral hygiene(70.1%) were worrisome.
In recent years, dental evidence has played an important role in the positive identification of unknown deceased victims of catastrophies. To improve further dental identification techniques, there is an urgent need to adopt a national policy on denture marking as a compulsory procedure in the fabrication of dentures. The favoured scheme of marking which provides the most information for the identity of the denture wearer is proposed here.
A case of denture hyperplasia of the upper labial sulcus with concomitant oncocytic metaplastic changes is described. The patient concerned is an elderly male wearing an ill-fitting upper full denture.
The objectives of this study were to compare the microhardness, flexural strength and compressive
strength of a new bulk-fill composite (SonicFill™) to a conventional nanohybrid composite (Herculite
Precis) and an established bulk-fill composite (Tetric N Ceram). In addition, the depth of cure of the
two bulk-fill resin composites was also investigated. The materials were prepared and tested for the
mechanical properties following ISO 4049:2009. Microhardness and depth of cure were measured using
Vickers hardness tester. Compressive and flexural strength were tested using a universal testing machine.
To determine the depth of cure, microhardness of the bulk-fill composites were measured as a function
of selected depth of materials at 0.5 mm, 2.0 mm and 4.0 mm. Data were analyzed by either one-way
ANOVA or Friedman test. Analysis demonstrated that SonicFill™ gave the highest microhardness value
(101.8 + 4.6 VHN) compared to the other two groups. There were no significant differences among all
groups in flexural and compressive strength. The depth of cure decreased as the thickness of both bulkfill
composites increased. In conclusion, SonicFill™ showed favorable mechanical properties compared
to other composites tested. In both bulk-filled groups, microhardness value decreased as the thickness
of the composite increased. The polymerization of the bulk-filled composites was effective only at 2 mm
or less.
The aim of the study was to determine the depth of cure of a new nanocomposite when exposed to different curing times and also when different shades were polymerized. The nanocomposite, Filtek Supreme (3M ESPE), was packed into 96 plastic cylindrical moulds measuring 4 mm in internal diameter and 8 mm in length and then polymerized using a conventional quartz-tungsten-halogen light curing unit. The first part of the study involved curing 16 samples each of A2 shade of the nanocomposite at exposure times of 20s, 40s, 60s and 120s. For the second part, a similar number of samples of the dentinal opacity shades of A2, B3 and A4 of the nanocomposite were polymerized at a constant exposure time of 40s. The depth of polymerization of the nanocomposite in each sample was measured using a digimatic indicator. Curing depths were found to increase significantly (P < 0.05) with longer exposure time (20s < 40s < 60s < 120s) and decrease significantly with darker shades (A2 > B3 > A4).
Desmoid tumor of the mandible, or desmoplastic fibroma, is a rare disease with only a few cases reported in the literature. This paper presents the rare case of an elderly male with desmoplastic fibroma of the mandible with an uncommon accompanying proliferative myositis. The case is discussed with emphasis on the clinical presentation, differential diagnosis and treatment of this lesion.
The purpose of this study was to determine the
DNA yield and quality from different non-invasive
sampling methods and to identify the method which
gave the highest DNA yield. Method: Thirty-eight
volunteers had been recruited in this study where
blood, buccal cells and saliva were collected using
various collection techniques. Buccal cells were
collected by 1) cytobrush and 2) saline mouth rinsing
or “swish”. Meanwhile saliva was collected by passive
drooling method. Upon processing the white blood
cell (WBC), buccal cells and saliva samples, DNA
extraction was performed according to the
manufacturer’s protocol. Quantification and quality
(DNA ratio at A260/A280) of the extracted DNA were
determined using NanoDropND-1000®. T-test was
performed to compare means between DNA obtained
from various collection methods. Results: DNA yields
from buccal cells collected with cytobrush, “swish”,
saliva and WBC (mean ± SD) were (8.2 ± 5.9)ng/μl,
(28.2 ± 14.9)ng/μl, (5.9 ± 9.5)ng/μl and (105.3 ±
75.0)ng/μl respectively. Meanwhile the mean DNA
ratio at A260/A280 for cytobrush, “swish”, saliva and
WBC were 2.3, 2.0, 1.7 and 1.8 respectively. Post hoc
test with Bonferroni correction suggested that DNA
yield from “swish” technique exhibited the least mean
different as compared to the DNA extracted from WBC
(p
Craniofacial superimposition methods are employed for the identification of unknown skulls or living persons. There are many such methods and of particular interest is that technique developed by Furue which is inexpensive to set-up. A study was undertaken to ascertain the validity of this technique and to correlate our findings with other researchers.
In response to the introduction of an integrated dental education program at University of Malaya (UM) in 2011, a study was conducted to develop a caries risk assessment model (CRA) for use in non-surgical caries management for Year 3 and 4 students of the new integrated program. Methods: The CRA model was based on risk indicators used by dental students in the Preventive Dental Clinic (PDC). Patients aged 15 years and above who attended the PDC for the first time in year 2009 and 2010 were used as study sample. Four hundred and fourteen patient names were identified from the student PDC logbook. Of the 414, 359 dental records had complete data and included in the analysis. Data were analysed using SPSS version 17.0. Chi-square test was used for group comparison and associated factors for coronal caries were analysed using Multiple Logistic Regression (MLR). Results: The final model showed that adults, brushing teeth once daily, and not having dental prosthesis/appliance were 3.31 (CI=1.64-6.69), 2.53 (CI=1.19-5.40), and 2.25 (CI=1.25-4.10) more likely to develop coronal caries, respectively, than adolescents, brushing teeth at least twice a day, and having dental prosthesis/appliance. Conclusions: The results indicate that age group, toothbrushing frequency and dental prosthesis status are significant indicators for coronal caries among patients. Outcomes of the study contributed towards bridging the gap between cariology
and preventive modules in the new integrated dental program.