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The present survey provides a quantitative assessment of caries prevalence, covering a group of 3&ndash, 5 year-old children from an urban area generally with a high income in the province of Milan, and a comparison of the obtained results with the data presented by the W.H.O. A cross-sectional study was conducted in the period from March to September 2018 to investigate the prevalence of caries in a sample of 160 children (82 females and 78 males). The absence/presence of caries was defined as a dependent variable. Factors concerning lifestyle, diet, oral habits, oral hygiene, the presence and type of malocclusion and mouth breathing attitude were considered as risk factors. Data were analyzed by Chi-square (&chi, 2) and regression tests using SPSS (version 25.0) software. In total, 84.38% of children (135 out of 160) showed no caries. A regression analysis demonstrated that children who had already received an early first dental visit were mostly those already affected by caries. Furthermore, children who had four meals daily or more were less exposed to the risk of developing caries compared to those who had only 1&ndash, 3 meals daily. The caries prevalence of preschool children from urban areas with a high income in Milan province is relatively close to that considered acceptable by the W.H.O. in its proposed goals for the year 2020. Therefore, it can be concluded from the obtained results that there is a possibility for further improvement in preventing caries growth at its initial stage: it is necessary for the number of meals daily consumed by children to be controlled by parents, and conducting a dental visit early in childhood must not be neglected.

In complex dental treatments, a preliminary virtual plan (VP) can minimise the probability of errors and increase the predictability of the achieved result. Digital technologies and artificial intelligence open more opportunities for such planning, as they can be applied at the early stages of clinical examination to develop a simultaneous VP of all stages of treatment. The present clinical case describes a one-stage entire VP combining all the stages of treatment: gnathological, orthodontic, and prosthetic rehabilitation, until the final result. This approach avoids the accumulation errors associated with multistage VP, in which one stage of planning follows the end of a previous stage. One-step VP also allows demonstrating to the patients the expected results of the restoration, which increases their motivation to initiate the treatment.

The second primary molar represents an anchorage element in interceptive orthodontics. The present study aims to analyze the 3D morphology of primary second molars in order to provide reference data and implications about the development of orthodontic bands for second primary molars. Digital models of dental arches from 150 subjects in primary or mixed dentition were analyzed. Six dimensional variables were digitally measured for each second primary molar, and the mean and standard error of the mean (SEM) were calculated and compared applying Student t-test statistical analysis. The mean value results show statistically significant dimensional differences between the upper and lower teeth, (mostly p &lt, 0.0001), except for the variable h1, while only the variable h1 showed significant differences between the antimetric teeth (left and right). The dimensional variations between the right and left molars were considerably minor compared to those found by comparing the upper and lower arches. A significantly higher dimension of the lower molars and a more rectangular shape were observed.

Background: Developmental enamel defects (DDE) exert significant effects both on esthetics and occlusal function and prevention should be the general clinical approach to DDE. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was, therefore, to detect, within a pediatric sample, any significant association between DDE and children&rsquo, s psychosocial attitudes towards home oral hygiene, as well as potential associations between primary preventive procedures and DDE. Methods: 394 schoolchildren (197 males and 197 females, 8.9 &plusmn, 1.4 years) underwent an intra-oral examination, they were then interviewed with a brief questionnaire. Results: 5&ndash, 6% and 12&ndash, 14% of participants had, respectively at least one molar and one incisor affected by DDE. In general, no associations were observed in the examined clinical categories (caries and other oral health indices). A strong relationship was found between the presence of molar DDE and children&rsquo, s positive vs. negative psychosocial attitudes towards home oral hygiene. Conclusions: The probability of finding DDE in our sample of examined children was approximately more than doubled for children with negative psychosocial attitudes towards home oral hygiene, than for children with positive attitudes towards home oral hygiene.