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Background A major shift has occured in the trend of dealing with dental caries from primary to secondary prevention, specially after SDF approval off-label by US FDA in recent years and Hall Technique (HT) in the last decade. Objectives To determine the frequency of awareness and use of Silver Diammine Fluoride (SDF) and Hall technique among dental professionals in the Eastern province of Saudi Arabia. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted in a public hospital, metropolitan city of Middle Eastern region between March 15, 2019 & January 31, 2020. Dental practitioners were requested, with their consent, to fill up a digitally designed survey. Chi-square test on SPSS-20.0 was applied to compare frequency of awareness and use of SDF and HALL Technique among the survey participants. Results The awareness of SDF was found to be 73.6% among specialists, 54.9% among graduates and 29.6% among students whereas awareness of HALL technique for stainless steel crown in pediatric dentistry was found statistically similar in all participants groups i.e. 42.7% in students, 55.5% in graduates and 54.9% in specialist group (p = 0.125). Conclusion The results show potential with regards to awareness of dental specialists & postgraduate residents but inadequate among general dentists and students though all were keen advocates and found committed to its use to help the community. It points towards a further need of the of education for all groups. Those non- invasive techniques are very useful tools in general but specifically during Covid-19 pandemic where they can play a major role in preventing the spread of infection, arresting decay, alleviating pain and anxiety without resorting to aggressive treatment like pulp treatment/extraction. Low response rate may be improved in future through the respondents’ counselling and regular follow up.

Article Title and Bibliographic Information A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials comparing rotary canal instrumentation techniques with manual instrumentation techniques in primary teeth. Manchanda S, Sardana D, Yiu CKY. Int Endod J. 2020;53(3):333-353. Source of Funding Information not available. Type of Study/Design Systematic review with meta-analysis of data.

Objective This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the overall, clinical, and radiographical success rates of alternative pulpotomy medicaments in primary teeth. Methods A systematic search of five databases was conducted following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. Prospective clinical trials using alternative pulpotomy medicaments in children were included. The outcome measures were overall, clinical, and radiographic success, expressed in percentages and converted to odds ratios. Fifteen articles were included in the meta-analysis. Results Combined odds ratios for overall, clinical, and radiographic success was 0.55 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.12-2.41; P = .42; I2 = 76%), 1.03 (95% CI: 0.57-1.86; P = .92; I2 = 0%), and 0.84 (95% CI: 0.54-1.47; P = .66; I2 = 34%), respectively. The results suggest an inconclusive outcome in the success rate of alternative medicaments. Conclusions There is insufficient evidence to support the efficacy of alternative pulpotomy medicaments for use in primary teeth. Further robust studies are required before such alternative medicaments should be used in clinical practice.

In this work, the applicability of xylanases in sugarcane straw pulps and the possibility of recovering this enzyme were evaluated. A commercial xylanase (Pulpzyme HC) was used for pulp treatment and this enzyme was recovered and reused several times in the new pulp enzymatic treatment without addition of new enzyme load. In addition, a combined process of pulping was also evaluated, such as the fungal pretreatment of straw (biopulping) and the acetosolv pulping. Quantity of recovered enzyme in the first treatment was approximately 7% of initial enzyme load. After the second treatment no enzyme recovery was possible. Several factors interfered on xylanase recovery, such as pulp type, treatment medium (buffered or aqueous) and the methodology employed in the enzyme recovery. An alkaline extraction stage was carried out to verify the action of Pulpzyme on enzymatic treated pulps, but due to concentration of NaOH used in the stage differences were not observed in the kappa numbers and viscosity of the pulps. The Fourier transform infrared and principal component analyses (FTIR–PCA) were used to analyze sugarcane bagasse pulps of a previous work and FTIR–PCA showed differences among untreated, xylanase-treated and alkaline-extracted pulps of sugarcane bagasse.

The degradation of the organic content of a bleaching Kraft mill effluent (BKME) has been carried out by using Fenton reagent and irradiation providing the conditions needed for the simultaneous occurrence of Fenton and photo-Fenton reactions. The main parameters that govern the complex reactive system, i.e. light intensity, temperature, pH, Fe(II) and H 2 O 2 initial concentrations, and O 2 presence in solution have been studied. Concentrations of Fe(II) between 0 and 800 ppm, and H 2 O 2 between 0 and 10,000 ppm were chosen. Temperatures above 25 and up to 70 °C have a beneficial effect on total organic carbon (TOC) decay rate. The presence of small amounts of O 2 seems to be enough to ensure the reaction progress. The combination of Fenton and photo-Fenton reactions has been proved to be highly effective for the treatment of such a type of wastewaters, and important advantages concerning the application of this combination of reactions arise from the study.

Original Article Nadin G, Goel BR, Yeung CA, Glenny AM. Pulp treatment for extensive decay in primary teeth. The Cochrane Library, 2004, Issue 3. Level of Evidence 1a Purpose To evaluate the relative effectiveness of various pulp treatment techniques in retaining primary molar teeth with decay involving the pulp for at least 12 months Source of Funding No external sources of support. Internal support (Cochrane) was supplied by University Dental Hospital of Manchester (UK) and Salford Primary Care Trust (UK) Type of Study/Design Systematic review