Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among Malay children from five primary schools in Kuala Lumpur using self-administered questionnaires.
Results: A total of 134 Malay children (70 males and 64 females) with a mean (SD) age of 10.3 (1.0) years were recruited. Majority of the children had a father (61.9%) and a mother (56.0%) with secondary school education and earned below RM3,900 (70.9%) per month. The most preferred fruits and vegetable were bananas (91.9%) and carrots (71.4%), while the most recognised was oranges (100.0%) and tomatoes (96.3%). The children demonstrated an overall moderate level of attitude, recognition and knowledge with mean (SD) scores of 70.3 (19.9), 76.8 (18.1) and 73.6 (17.5), respectively, towards fruits and vegetables intake. Majority of the children (53.0%) were not aware of the daily recommended servings of fruits and vegetables, while 40.0% of children expressed a low attitude towards eating a variety of fruits and vegetables. The willingness to try a new type of vegetables and consume more vegetables was lower (68.7%) compared to fruits (75.4%).
Conclusion: The preferences and recognition of fruits were higher compared to vegetables among the children. The children demonstrated a moderate level of attitude, recognition and knowledge towards fruits and vegetables consumption. Efforts to educate children on the recommended number of servings per day and improve their acceptability of vegetables should be implemented to promote the increase in fruits and vegetables consumption among children.
OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the sensitivity of QLF and OCT in detecting initial dental erosion in vitro.
METHODS: 12 human incisors were embedded in resin except for a window on the buccal surface. Bonding agent was applied to half of the window, creating an exposed and non-exposed area. Baseline measurements were taken with QLF, OCT and surface microhardness. Samples were immersed in orange juice for 60 min and measurements taken stepwise every 10 min. QLF was used to compare the loss of fluorescence between the two areas. The OCT system, OCS1300SS (Thorlabs Ltd.), was used to record the intensity of backscattered light of both areas. Multiple linear regression and paired t test were used to compare the change of the outcome measures.
RESULTS: All 3 instruments demonstrated significant dose responses with the erosive challenge interval (p < 0.05) and a detection threshold of 10 min from baseline. Thereafter, surface microhardness demonstrated significant changes after every 10 min of erosion, QLF at 4 erosive intervals (20, 40, 50 and 60 min) while OCT at only 2 (50 and 60 min).
CONCLUSION: It can be concluded that OCT and QLF were able to detect demineralization after 10 min of erosive challenge and could be used to monitor the progression of demineralization of initial enamel erosion in vitro.