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Background: Studies present ambiguous findings regarding the role of tryptophan and its metabolites, kynurenine and serotonin in chronic musculoskeletal pain. This systematic review aimed to investigate the expression of tryptophan and its metabolites, serotonin and kynurenine in patients with local and generalized chronic musculoskeletal pain in comparison with pain‐free controls. Methods: An electronic search was conducted in the databases MEDLINE, CINAHL, EMBASE, the Cochrane Central Registry of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) and Web of Science for clinical and observational trials from the beginning of each database to 21 April 2023. Out of 6734 articles, a total of 17 studies were included; 12 studies were used in the meta‐analysis of serotonin, 3 regarding tryptophan and 2 studies for a narrative synthesis regarding kynurenine. Risk of bias was assessed using the quality assessment tool for observational cohort and cross‐sectional studies of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, while the certainty of evidence was by GRADE. Results: All included studies showed a low risk of bias. The meta‐analysis showed lower blood levels of tryptophan (p <.001; very low quality of evidence) and higher blood levels of serotonin (p <.001; very low‐quality evidence) in patients with generalized musculoskeletal pain, when compared to pain‐free individuals. In local chronic musculoskeletal pain, there were higher blood levels of serotonin (p=.251; very low quality of evidence) compared to pain‐free individuals. Regarding kynurenine, the studies reported both higher and lower blood levels in generalized chronic musculoskeletal pain compared to pain‐free individuals. Conclusions: The blood levels of tryptophan and its metabolites serotonin and kynurenine seem to influence chronic musculoskeletal pain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Temporomandibular disorders (TMDs) encompass several conditions that cause pain and impair function of the masticatory muscles (M-TMDs) and temporomandibular joints. There is a large interest among clinicians and researchers in the use of botulinum toxin-A (BoNT-A) as a treatment for M-TMD. However, due to the lack of consistent evidence regarding the efficacy as well as adverse events of BoNT-A, clinical decision making is challenging. Therefore, this umbrella review aimed to systematically assess systematic reviews (SRs) evaluating BoNT-A treatment effects on pain intensity, mandibular movements, and adverse events in patients with M-TMDs. Method: An electronic search was undertaken in the databases MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, Cochrane Central Registry of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), Web of Science, Epistemonikos, ClinicalTrials.gov, and ICTRP to identify SRs investigating BoNT-A effects on M-TMDs, published from the inception of each database until 6 December 2023. The quality of evidence was rated according to the critical appraisal checklist developed by the umbrella review methodology working group. Only high-quality SRs were included. Results: In total, 18 SRs were included. BoNT-A was shown to be more effective than placebo to reduce pain intensity, but not compared to standard treatments. Additionally, BoNT-A was not superior to placebo or standard treatments regarding improvement of mandibular movements. BoNT-A was considered to have a higher risk for adverse events on muscle and bony tissue compared with other treatments. Conclusion: The synthesis in this umbrella review provides the highest level of evidence present. Taken together, there are indications of effectiveness of BoNT-A for treatment of M-TMDs, supported by moderate evidence. However, considering the risk of causing serious adverse events, treatment with BoNT-A is recommended to be the last treatment alternative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Temporomandibular disorders (TMD) are common. They affect abilities for carrying out daily tasks and influence different psychological aspects. In addition to standard treatment, psychological treatments have been suggested. The aim was to investigate the effects of psychological treatments on patients with painful TMD in a short‐ and long‐term perspective. Materials and Methods: An electronic search was conducted in the databases MEDLINE, CINAHL, EMBASE, the Cochrane Central Registry of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), and Web of Science for randomized clinical trials (RCTs) reporting psychological interventions for TMD. Registered beforehand in PROSPERO (CRD42022320106). In total, 18 RCTs were included; six RCTs that could be used in the meta‐analysis, and all 18 RCTs were used in the narrative synthesis. Risk of bias was assessed by the Cochrane's tool for assessing risk of bias and certainty of evidence by GRADE. Results: The narrative synthesis indicates that psychological treatment options seem equivalent to standard treatment for painful TMD. The meta‐analysis showed that a combination of psychological treatment and standard treatment and manual treatment (very low‐quality evidence) are significantly better in pain reduction than just counselling and standard treatments of TMD. Conclusion: This study indicates that psychological treatments seem to reduce pain intensity in individuals with painful TMD, and that the effect seems to be equally good as standard treatment. However, a combination of psychological treatments and standard treatments seems to have an even better effect. This indicates that psychological treatments are promising as an additional treatment approach for painful TMDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Temporomandibular disorders (TMD) comprise a cluster of conditions with a wide range of etiological factors that causes pain and discomfort in the masticatory muscles (TMD-M) and temporomandibular joints (TMD-J). More than 50% of the patients with TMD report regular usage of drugs. However, there is still no consensus, nor is there any evidence-based support for clinicians when choosing between different drugs. Therefore, this systematic review, including a network meta-analysis (NMA), aimed to evaluate the scientific evidence and discuss the pharmacological treatment options available to treat painful TMD. Method: An electronic search was undertaken to identify randomized controlled trials (RCTs) investigating pharmacological treatments for TMD-M and/or TMD-J, published until 6 April 2023. Since only 11 articles could be used for an NMA regarding TMD-M, a narrative synthesis was also performed for all 40 included RCTs. The quality of evidence was rated according to Cochrane's tool for assessing risk of bias, while the certainty of evidence was rated according to Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE). Results: When it comes to TMD-M, evidence arises for wet needling therapies with BTX-A, granisetron, and PRP as well as muscle relaxants. For TMD-J, evidence points toward pharmacological treatment approaches including non-steroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and glucocorticosteriods (for inflammatory conditions) as well as hyaluronic acid and dextrose. Conclusions: The evidence clearly indicates that the pharmacological treatment approaches differ between TMD-M and TMD-J. Therefore, it is of great importance to first try to uncover each patient's individual and multifactorial etiology and then employ a multifaceted treatment strategy, including pharmacological treatment approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Higher education tends to focus on academic writing only, instead of emphasizing that professional texts are also used as a basis for communication in contexts with a variety of participators. When it comes to clinical notes, research is scarce and focused on technology and informatics. Therefore, the aim was to explore dental students' clinical notes, and specifically which aspects of the clinical notes characterizes clinical notes that are not sufficient enough for professional purposes. Methods: The object of analysis was the student's written completion of a teacher constructed protocol regarding oral mucosa, the dental apparatus including pathology on tooth level, oral hygiene, and a validated international clinical examination protocol of the temporomandibular region. The study was framed within the New Literacy Studies approach, and the clinical notes were analyzed using thematic analysis. Results: Within the clinical notes three themes were identified; a) familiar content; b) familiar content in new context; and c) new content. The forms of notes could refer to either categorizational clinical notes or descriptive clinical notes. Most students were able to write acceptable clinical notes when the content was familiar, but as soon as the familiar content was in a new context the students had difficulties to write acceptable notes. When it comes to descriptive notes students suffered difficulties to write acceptable notes both when it came to familiar content, or familiar content in a new context. Conclusions: Taken together, the results indicate that students have difficulties writing acceptable notes when they are novices to the content or context, making their notes either insufficient, too short or even wrong for professional purposes. With this in mind, this study suggests that there is a need to strengthen the demands on sufficient professional quality in clinical notes and focus on clinical notes already in the early stages of the different medical educations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Academic reading and writing are seen as self-evident literacy competences in most contemporary higher educations, however, whether students also are introduced to professional literacy of relevance for dentistry during their education is a question. The purpose of this study is to analyze one of the Swedish dental programmes, with respect to its design, in relation to possible content of relevance for academic and professional literacy. Secondarily, to identify and analyze Swedish dental students' writing in an academic setting, i.e. what these students are expected to read and write, and how they write. Methods: Data, for this ethnographically inspired case-study, was produced by observations and audio-recordings of lectures, copies of teachers' handouts and of volunteering students' notes, and a multiple-choice-test. Data-analysis was made in five steps, starting with macro-level data, i.e. curriculum and syllabuses, followed by the syllabuses for the two observed modules, the teacher-provided material, analysis of the students' notes, while in the fifth and final step, the results from the previous steps were compared, to find patterns of what students were expected to read and write, and what in the teacher-provided multimodal material that was emphasized in teachers' talk. Results: This study showed that students were engaged in several types of literacy events, such as reading, finding and watching videos on their learning platform, writing, and following instructions. The study also showed that there is a recurrent academic content comprised of anatomy, physiology and pathology, while the professional content comprised of patient communication and anamnesis. Further, an integrated content was found and was initiated in teacher-constructed PowerPoints and by student-questions. Note-taking patterns varied between individual students, but the general pattern for this group of students were the use of complementary notes. This type of note-taking was used to make available further descriptions of the teacher-constructed text in PowerPoints, but also an independent text describing pictures shown on teachers' PowerPoints or the blackboard. Conclusion: Findings from the present study reveal that students either copy text from teachers' PowerPoint-slides, re-formulate text from teachers' PowerPoint-slides, or write complementing text to teachers' PowerPoint-slides. Further, the students individually choses type of note-taking based on situation. The study also revealed that the academic literacy – in the two modules during the fifth and sixth semesters of a dental education analyzed – mainly has a professional basis for reading, writing, and communication purposes. The study also showed that academic and professional literacy are closely connected through recurrent integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The transition from upper secondary to higher education and from higher education to professional practice requires that students adapt to new literacy practices, academic and professional. However, there is a gap of knowledge regarding literacy practices in dental education. Therefore, the aim of this study was to identify what characterizes dental students' notetaking and secondarily to determine what dental students express regarding their notetaking. Methods: To analyze students' perspectives about the purposes of notetaking and to examine their written notes in depth, three volunteer students, out of the 24 students that voluntarily and anonymously handed in their notes, were interviewed. The three undergraduate dental students that participated in this material-based, semi-structured interview study, framed within a New Literacy Studies approach, were on their third year (6th semester). The focus of these material-based interviews was on each student's notes. Questions prepared for semi-structured interviews were open-ended and allowed for individual follow-up questions related to the interviewee's answer. To analyze the outcome of the interviews a thematic analysis was used. Results: From the material-based interviews eight themes that relate to what, how and for what purpose students write were discerned. These eight themes include professional vocabulary, core content as well as clinical examples that belong to what students read and write; multimodal accentuation as well as synthesis that belong to how students read and write; and mnemonic strategies, academic purposes, and professional purposes that belong to for what purpose students read and write. Conclusions: Findings from the interviews indicate that the digital development, offering a variety of available tools, has expanded the notion of notetaking. This study identified that dental students' notetaking has changed during their education from initially being synchronous, to also include multimodal and asynchronous writing, making notetaking more of a writing practice. Further, students' writing practices seem to be motivated by their knowledge formation in relation to a subject matter, but also in relation to their experiences during clinical training. Although, our hypothesis was that the main purpose of notetaking and writing was to pass their course examinations, this study showed that students that were half-way through their dental education, are aware that literacy practices are for learning for their future profession, and not only for passing their exams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to explore what subject-integrated teaching of vocational subjects, ethics and health care, contributed with in terms of vocational knowing. The case study was ethnographically inspired and followed a group of students (16 +) and their teachers in a Swedish Health and Social Care Program while they worked with a theme unit called Death for two weeks in autumn 2012. Data comprised observations, field notes, and audio recordings of the planning and teaching of the theme unit, informal discussions with teachers and students, handouts, a theme booklet, and student assignments. Analysis was based on concepts related to cultural historical activity theory, especially emphasizing rules, tools, actions, operations, and contradictions. Results showed three major objects emphasized in the teacher–student interaction and the tools chosen to support the subject-integrated teaching activity: vocational knowing related to vocational ethics, to everyday ethics, and argumentative skills. Manifestations of contradictions in the form of dilemmas related to the examples that teachers copied from a textbook. As these examples were mainly contextualized in everyday situations, and there are no formal ethical guidelines for nursing assistants on which teachers could rely on, teachers' narratives were used to complement these examples. Students' argumentative skills were emphasized and related to personal situations, in which ethical arguments for justification in vocationally relevant situations were made unclear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]