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Objetivos: O presente trabalho pretendeu estudar a associação de aspetos relacionados com a qualidade de vida a características sociodemográficas, comportamentos de saúde oral e estado de saúde oral dos jovens de 18 anos da Região de Lisboa e Vale do Tejo, utilizando dados previamente recolhidos no III Estudo Nacional de Prevalência das Doenças Orais (ENPDO). Métodos: A amostra do III ENPDO foi constituída por 157 indivíduos com 18 anos, residentes na região de Lisboa e Vale do Tejo. O III ENPDO recolheu dados através de um questionário e de uma observação intraoral. O questionário recolheu informação sobre a qualidade de vida, dados sociodemográficos e comportamentos de saúde oral. A observação intraoral incluiu o registo de cárie dentária (ICDAS II) e hemorragia gengival (IPC modificado). A análise estatística utilizou os testes de Mann-Whitney e de Kruskal-Wallis (α=0,05). Resultados: De um modo geral, os indivíduos do sexo feminino, com um nível de escolaridade mais baixo, que nunca visitaram um profissional de saúde oral e com presença de cárie ou de hemorragia gengival apresentaram piores resultados (p

Objective: to contribute to the validation of the Early Childhood Oral Impact Scale (ECOHIS) by studying its psychometric properties when applied to a Portuguese preschool population. Methods: Cross-sectional study conducted with children aged between three and five-years-old. The non-probabilistic sample included two preschools in the municipality of Lisbon. Children who agreed to participate and whose guardians signed the informed consent were included. Data collection included a questionnaire, administered to the parents, and an intraoral examination of the children. The questionnaire included the Portuguese version of ECOHIS. The intraoral examination included the caries diagnosis according to the World Health Organization criteria. Discriminant validity compared the ECOHIS score between children with and without caries experience (Mann-Whitney U-test). Cohen’s d was calculated to estimate the magnitude of the difference. Reliability analysis included Cronbach’s α and test-retest. Construct validity was analyzed by the correlation between the ECOHIS score and dmft (Spearman’s correlation). A significance level of 5% was used. Results: The sample included 104 children (mean age 4.1 years). ECOHIS values were significantly different between children with and without caries (p=0.004). The Cohen’s d was 0.84. The Cronbach’s was 0.78, with no significant increase in value when eliminating any of the items. The test-retest showed significant correlation (r=0.76; p=0.01). There was a significant correlation between the ECOHIS score and caries experience (r=0.28; p=0.004). Conclusion: The Portuguese version of the ECOHIS showed good psychometric properties, indicating that it is a reliable and valid tool to measure the impact of oral health in preschool children.

Objectives: In recent decades, there has been a growing awareness of the impact of daily practices on the environment and a greater concern of companies to develop sustainable products; consequently, a wide variety of sustainable oral hygiene products is available. The study aims to analyze the consumer's perspective regarding the use of sustainable products for oral health self-care, namely practices, opinions, and difficulties felt regarding the use of these products. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out on individuals 18 years old or older living in Portugal. Data were obtained through an online questionnaire, which collected information on the use of sustainable oral hygiene products, practices, perceptions, and difficulties experienced in adopting a sustainable lifestyle. Descriptive statistics were performed for the variables. Results: The sample consisted of 185 participants. The majority (64.3%) considered it “very important” to invest in developing sustainable oral hygiene products. However, only 37.3% reported having already used these products. Of these, most were satisfied or very satisfied with the sustainable products used. Personal lack of interest (93.0%), difficulty in accessing products in commercial establishments (69.2%), and the high price of products (61.1%) were the main difficulties experienced in using these products. Conclusions: Participants were aware of more sustainable oral hygiene products, but there is still a low frequency of use. It would be important to study the efficacy and safety of these products to promote the use of more environmentally friendly oral hygiene products.

Objectives: To study the prevalence of malocclusion in deciduous dentition and its associated factors. Methods: The target population consisted of children between 3 and 5 years old who attended four kindergartens in Alvalade, Lisbon. Data was collected through a questionnaire to parents and an intraoral examination of children. The questionnaire collected sociodemographic and non-nutritive sucking habits information. The intraoral examination collected data about the child’s occlusion and dental caries. Results: The sample included 89 children. The prevalence of malocclusion was 83.9%, and the most prevalent types were crowding (44.8%) and distocclusion (41.4%). Most of the children (68.2%) had non-nutritive sucking habits, of which using a pacifier was the most frequent (81.6%). The habit of using a pacifier after three years of age was reported by 67.8% of the participants. The variables statistically associated with malocclusion (p

Objectives: To study the implementation of environmental sustainability practices at Portuguese dental clinics, the importance given by clinical directors to these practices, and the barriers felt in their applicability. Methods: This cross-sectional study’s target population was clinical directors (Dentists or Stomatologists) working in Portugal. Data was collected through an online questionnaire shared in several groups of clinicians on social networks, published in digital journals, and sent by email through medical associations. It was available between February and April 2021. The questionnaire collected information about the implementation of environmental sustainability practices in dental clinics within six categories of management: devices and equipment, dental amalgam, imaging, paper, energy, and water. There were also questions about the importance of these practices and the barriers felt. Descriptive statistics of all variables were performed. Results: The sample included 245 clinical directors, of which 65.5% were female and 43.7% were between 40 and 49 years old. There was a high degree of implementation of environmental sustainability practices related to imaging (82.6%), dental amalgam (80.7%), water (67.5%), energy (67.4%), paper (63.4%), and devices and equipment (62.9%). Almost all respondents (96%) considered that environmental sustainability practices are important or very important, and the more frequently referred barriers to implementation were costs (44.6%) and lack of training/information (16.3%). Conclusions: Clinical directors showed good environmental awareness and satisfactory implementation of environmental sustainability practices in dental clinics. Costs were the most reported barrier to the implementation of further practices.

Adeno-associated viruses (AAV) are currently predominant viral transfer tools for gene therapy, and efforts are being made to design faster and more efficient methods and technologies for their manufacturing. The early selection of high-performing filters is essential for developing an ultrafiltration and diafiltration (UF/DF) process, especially when feed material is scarce, and timelines are short. However, few methods and technologies exist to enable process optimization with multiple variations in a single run. In this study, we explored the potential of Ambr® Crossflow for high-throughput, automated screening of different membrane materials, pore sizes and different process conditions for the UF/DF step of AAV8. The best overall performance was obtained with a 100 kDa PES flat sheet cassette. The UF/DF process was further transferred to a larger scale to the Sartoflow® Smart Tangential Flow Filtration (TFF) system using a 100 kDa PES Sartocon® Slice 200 cassette and compared to a 100 kDa PES hollow fiber. Virus recovery, permeate flux and total protein removal values of the flat sheet cassette were similar to those achieved in small-scale devices, and higher than those of the hollow fiber, thus demonstrating similar performance at a larger process scale. The high-throughput, automated method described herein allowed to screen multiple materials and process parameters of a UF/DF process in a time- and resource-efficient way, making it a useful tool to accelerate early-stage downstream process development of AAV.

Objetivos: Os objetivos deste estudo foram caracterizar a implementação da escovagem e de outras medidas de promoção da saúde oral em jardins de infância e identificar os fatores que influenciam a implementação da escovagem dos dentes. Métodos: A recolha de dados foi efetuada através de um questionário online dirigido aos educadores de infância a lecionar em Portugal. O questionário incluiu a caracterização do jardim de infância, do educador, da escovagem dos dentes e de outras medidas. Foi realizada a estatística descritiva e inferencial, utilizando o teste não-paramétrico do qui-quadrado (α=0,05). Resultados: A amostra incluiu 1618 educadores de infância, com uma média de 47,1 anos (dp=9,975). A escovagem diária era realizada em 40,6% dos jardins de infância. As principais razões apontadas para a não escovagem foram o risco de transmissão de doenças e limitações de recursos humanos e de espaço. Uma percentagem considerável de jardins de infância (43,8%) nunca foi visitada pelas equipas de saúde oral. Nos jardins de infância onde os educadores exercem há mais anos (p=0,004), onde os educadores tiveram formação sobre saúde oral (p

Objetivos: Estudar a literacia em saúde dos estudantes do 3.º ano da Faculdade de Medicina Dentária da Universidade de Lisboa e relacioná-la com os seus dados demográficos, comportamentos, autoperceção e estado de saúde oral. Métodos: Foi realizado um estudo observacional, analítico e transversal. A recolha dos dados incluiu um questionário, uma observação intraoral e uma entrevista. O questionário recolheu informação sobre os dados demográficos e comportamentos dos estudantes. Na entrevista foi aplicada a versão portuguesa do instrumento Newest Sign Vital (NSV-Pt) para o estudo da literacia em saúde. A observação intraoral incluiu o diagnóstico de cárie segundo os critérios do Internacional Caries Detection and Assessment System (ICDAS II). A análise estatística incluiu a estatística descritiva e foram utilizados os testes de qui-quadrado, Mann Whitney e Kruskal Wallis com um nível de significância de 5%. Resultados: A amostra foi constituída por 92 estudantes. A média de respostas corretas ao NSV-Pt foi 4,87 (dp=1,15). Nenhum estudante teve elevada probabilidade de literacia em saúde limitada e 87,6% dos estudantes revelaram ter uma literacia em saúde adequada. Verificou-se uma associação estatisticamente significativa entre a literacia em saúde e a frequência de visita à consulta de saúde oral (p=0,04). Conclusões: A maioria dos estudantes apresentaram uma literacia em Saúde adequada. Os estudantes que frequentaram mais frequentemente o profissional de saúde oral apresentaram piores níveis de literacia em saúde.

Dye-decolorizing peroxidases (DyPs) are heme proteins with distinct structural properties and substrate specificities compared to classical peroxidases. Here, we demonstrate that DyP from the extremely radiation-resistant bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans is, like some other homologues, inactive at physiological pH. Resonance Raman (RR) spectroscopy confirms that the heme is in a six-coordinated-low-spin (6cLS) state at pH 7.5 and is thus unable to bind hydrogen peroxide. At pH 4.0, the RR spectra of the enzyme reveal the co-existence of high-spin and low-spin heme states, which corroborates catalytic activity towards H2O2 detected at lower pH. A sequence alignment with other DyPs reveals that DrDyP possesses a Methionine residue in position five in the highly conserved GXXDG motif. To analyze whether the presence of the Methionine is responsible for the lack of activity at high pH, this residue is substituted with a Glycine. UV-vis and RR spectroscopies reveal that the resulting DrDyPM190G is also in a 6cLS spin state at pH 7.5, and thus the Methionine does not affect the activity of the protein. The crystal structures of DrDyP and DrDyPM190G, determined to 2.20 and 1.53 Å resolution, respectively, nevertheless reveal interesting insights. The high-resolution structure of DrDyPM190G, obtained at pH 8.5, shows that one hydroxyl group and one water molecule are within hydrogen bonding distance to the heme and the catalytic Asparagine and Arginine. This strong ligand most likely prevents the binding of the H2O2 substrate, reinforcing questions about physiological substrates of this and other DyPs, and about the possible events that can trigger the removal of the hydroxyl group conferring catalytic activity to DrDyP.