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Purpose: Multiple accessory canals make furcation area of primary molars the most common port of entry of bacterial endotoxins to periradicular area. Reduction in permeability can improve prognosis of these teeth. Therefore, this study was designed to compare the effect of 940 nm diode laser and dentin bonding agent on the dye penetration of furcation area in primary molars. Material and Methods: Thirty teeth were divided into three groups, that is, Group 1 (control group), Group 2 (dentin bonding agent applied over floor of pulp chamber), and Group 3 (diode laser irradiated over floor of pulp chamber). The samples were prepared and seven from each group were tested by dye penetration and three were sent for scanning electron microscopy. Rise in temperature in the perifurcal area was also recorded at the time of laser irradiation. Dunn's pair-wise comparison analysis was used for the analysis for the difference in dye penetration among the group. Results: The maximum rise in temperature recorded postirradiation was 6.90C. Dye penetration was significantly reduced in Group 2 Dentin bonding group (DBG) as compared to control group (P = 0.0025). Reduction in permeability was observed in Group 3 Laser group (LG) but this was not statistically significant (P = 0.197). Scanning electron microscope revealed open dentinal tubules in Group 1. There were no open dentinal tubules in Group 2, while Group 3 had sealed dentinal tubules with glass-like surface over the region. Conclusion: Dentin bonding agent led to substantial decrease in dye penetration of furcation area of primary molars. This method should be evaluated clinically to improve successful pulpectomy procedures of primary molars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Despite the high prevalence of traumatic dental injuries (TDIs), parents generally lack awareness about dental trauma emergency management. This preliminary study's goal was to assess parents'/guardians' awareness of the treatment of tooth fractures/avulsion. Materials and Methods: A preformed questionnaire in e-format was sent to parents of school-going children. Kolmogorov–Smirnov test and Shapiro–Wilks's test were employed to test the normality of data. In addition, a Chi-square test was performed for quantitative variables. P ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: A response rate of 82.1% was achieved. Approximately 19.6% of parents reported dental injuries, with the majority (51.9%) occurring at home. In avulsion, 54.8% of parents believed that reinserting the tooth back into the socket was possible. For tooth fractures, 36.2% of parents believed that the fractured tooth could be glued. Tap water was preferred as a storage medium (43.3%). An insignificant association was observed with regard to storage media (P > 0.05). Conclusion: Inadequate understanding of the treatment of TDI by the primary caregiver leads to ineffective interventions at the scene of the accident and a poor prognosis for otherwise treatable cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the epidemiology of traumatic dental injuries (TDIs) in India. TDIs are the fifth most common noncommunicable disease, affecting over a billion individuals globally. The prevalence of TDIs in India has been understudied, with limited data available beyond the age of 18. The article emphasizes the need for a unified database and centralized registry to collect data on TDIs in order to develop evidence-based recommendations and improve patient care. The Indian Society of Dental Traumatology and the Indian Endodontic Society are working towards promoting knowledge sharing and research in this field. [Extracted from the article]

A large number of scientific articles have been published regarding impact of COVID-19 infection on dental practice, dental professionals, and the mode of spread of infection via dental procedures. The present systematic review was planned with an aim of evidence mapping and quality analysis of published research on the dental aspects of COVID-19 infection. The protocol was registered at https://share. osf.io/registration/46221-C87-BA8. The search was performed in Scopus, PubMed, Cochrane, and Embase databases till 15th July 2020. There was no restriction of year of publication and language. All types of published articles related to Dentistry, Dentist, Dental practice, and Oral health education on COVID-19 were included. The Joanna Briggs Institute's (JBI) Critical Appraisal Tools were used for the risk of bias analysis of included studies. A total of 393 articles were short-listed and were checked for eligibility and finally, 380 articles were included. Among the 380 research articles published (till July 15, 2020), the majority of the included articles belonged to the lowermost strata of the evidence pyramid. There were 54 original research articles with no randomized clinical trial, systematic review or, meta-analysis pertaining to the dental perspective of COVID-19 infection. The level of available evidence about dentistry and COVID-19 infection is very low with a lack of researches of highest quality. The guidelines/recommendations for dental professionals, proposed by the different scientific organizations/societies regarding COVID-19 infection are only consensus-based necessitating the need to formulate evidence-based guidelines. There is a need to identify essential research questions and strengthen the study designs in most of the aspects related to the dentistry and COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Pulpotomy is a vital pulp therapy performed in carious pulp exposures in teeth in which the inflamed coronal pulp is removed and medicament is placed to conserve the vital root pulps. Recently, simvastatin which is a cholesterol-lowering drug has been found to be associated with the pulp regenerative potential.Aim: The aim of this parallel two-arm randomized control trial was to evaluate and compare the clinical and radiographic efficacy of diode laser (DL) and simvastatin gel (SG) in pulpotomy of carious primary molars.Methods: Hundred primary molars (in 98 children, 65 males, 33 females with age 4-8 years) requiring pulpotomy were randomized into the DL or SG group. Pulpotomy was performed as per the standardized protocol; thereafter, all teeth were restored with resin modified glass ionomer cement followed by stainless steel crowns. Follow-up evaluations were done at 3 and 12 months using clinical and radiographic criteria. Statistical analysis was done using Chi-square test at a significance level of 0.05.Results: At 12 months, out of 92 teeth available for clinical and radiographic evaluation by blinded evaluators, DL group showed clinical and radiographic success rates of 76.1% and 52.1%, while SG group showed 80.4% and 65.2% success rates, respectively. There was no statistically significant difference between the efficacy of two techniques clinically (P = 0.49) or radiographically (P = 0.30).Conclusions: Both SG and DL had similar efficacy for primary tooth pulpotomy, clinically and radiographically after 12 months. Considering its ease of application and low-cost, SG can be recommended as a potential pulpotomy medicament in primary molars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The wire composite splint as a general rule is placed on the middle third of labial surface of the tooth. This is due to ease of application, better isolation, and fewer chances of contamination. However, these assumptions are opinion-based, with no scientific evidence to support them. In addition, to best of our knowledge no research has been carried out to evaluate the effect of position of wire splints on the mobility of the affected tooth and anchor teeth.Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of the cervico-incisal position of splinting wire on the mobility of a replanted tooth and anchor teeth in a cadaveric model.Methodology: Three cadavers (one female, 45 years old and two males, each 40 years old) were included in the study. periotest S was used to assess physiologic-tooth-mobility in three cadavers at baseline and after "extraction-replantation-wire-composite" splinting-protocol.Results: Greatest splint effect for horizontal-mobility was found to be 9.33 ± 0.57 for Cadaver-I (incisal-third), whereas it was highest (3.66 ± 2.51) for vertical-mobility in Cadaver-II (cervical third).Conclusion: Middle third position of wire composite splint have lowest splint effect on both horizontal and vertical mobility of replanted teeth, thus rendering the most favorable position for the establishment of physiologic mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to estimate the prevalence of traumatic dental injuries (TDI) in India. The secondary objective was to evaluate the prevalence rate according to the differences in gender, age, regions, type of TDI and risk factors associated with TDI.Methods: The PubMed, LILACS, Web of Science, Cochrane, CINHAL, and Scopus databases, along with the Public Health Electronic Library, TRoPHI and DoPHER were searched from 1st March to 15thApril 2019 without any restriction of language and year of publication. The qualitative synthesis was done regarding the demographics, study methods, cause of trauma, geographic location, increased overjet and inadequate lip coverage. The meta-analysis was undertaken with STATA-14 software (USA). The pooled prevalence of TDI was calculated using data extracted from 48 studies included in qualitative synthesis and meta-analysis. A sub-group meta-analysis was done by extraction of the data for age groups of 6 years and >6 years.Results: The pooled prevalence of TDI in Indian population was 13 cases in 100 individuals. The prevalence of TDI for age groups of ≤6 was 15% (males, 15%; females, 16%) and for >6 years was 12% (males, 13%; females, 8%). The most common cause of TDI was falls, and most frequent location was home. The odds ratio for occurrence of TDI and inadequate lip-coverage was 3.35 and overjet greater than 3 mm was 3.53.Conclusions: The pooled prevalence of TDI was 13% and slightly higher in children less than 6 years of age. Inadequate lip coverage and increased overjet are the risk factors associated with TDI. Heterogeneity was observed among the studies in terms of design, variables recorded, sampling, study methods and statistical methods. Majority of them also suffered from moderate to high risk of bias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aims: Although Streptococcus mutans has been implicated as the major etiologic agent in the development of dental caries, however, this organism has not been found to be present in all children with caries. Thus it remains to be elucidated whether a single or specific consortium of bacteria is responsible for the caries process. The aim of this study is to evaluate the oral microflora of Indian children suffering from dental caries and to compare the same in children with no caries.Methods: The study was carried out on 67 out-patient 2-14 years old children who reported to the department of Paediatric Dentistry. Dental plaque samples from superficial and deep carious lesions and caries free surfaces in caries active children (n = 35) were collected using a sterile excavator in storage vials and subjected to various conventional and molecular microbial techniques. Caries free children (n = 32), who did not have any carious lesion served as controls. The data obtained was subjected to Pearson's Chi Square/Fischer's Exact tests to determine the statistical difference between the microflora of groups.Results: Main organisms isolated were: Streptococcal species mainly S anginosus, S salivarius, S gordonii: Lactobacilli spp; Coagulase negative Staphylococci, Staph epidermidis, Staph aureus. Other organisms such as Klebsiella spp, Acinetobacter, Enterococcus, E coli could also be found. There was a statistical difference in the frequency of isolation of non-mutans Streptococcal species (P = 0.008) and Lactobacilli species (P = 0.0001) in the two groups.Conclusions: The study suggests that caries activity in this population of children is associated with a diverse microbial flora without detectable S mutans. Main organisms associated with dental caries in this population are: Gram-positive cocci and bacilli mainly the non-mutans Streptococcus and Lactobacilli. Frequent consumption of sugar containing food promotes the presence and growth of cariogenic organisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To investigate the clinical performance of International Caries Detection and Assessment System II (ICDAS II) (a ranked visual scale), radiovisiography (RVG) (a digital radiography device), and an alternating current impedance spectroscopy (ACIS) device for the detection and assessment of occlusal caries in primary teeth.Materials and Methods: Twenty-five molars were assessed using all three systems under standardized in vivo conditions. They were then extracted and also assessed by examiners in vitro. Downer's histological scoring criterion was the validation gold standard. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative likelihood ratios, and area under the receiver-operator curves were calculated for enamel caries and dentine caries. Repeatability was analyzed using intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). The performances of the systems between in vivo and in vitro settings by the same examiner were also compared.Statistical Analysis: SPSS version 17.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) was used to analyze the data. Comparison of the performance of all three systems for all caries and dentine caries using receiver operating characteristic curves was calculated using a range of cutoffs. Reliability was assessed using ICC method.Results: ICDAS II system showed the highest validity and repeatability for assessing occlusal caries in the primary molars. RVG was less accurate than the ICDAS II for detecting caries lesions confined to enamel. However, when dentine was involved, RVG was found to be as effective as ICDAS II.Conclusion: Within the limitations of the study, the in vivo results of ICDAS II and RVG were satisfactory and comparable to those obtained in vitro, with ICDAS II performing better. The ACIS device was least accurate among the three systems for caries assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Concomitant hypodontia and hyperdontia" is a very rare dental anomaly of number, having a prevalence rate of 0.002%-3.1%. It describes the simultaneous presence of hypodontia or missing teeth and supernumerary teeth in the same individual. It represents the opposite forces of nature acting simultaneously. Two rare cases of this anomaly involving different jaws and a classification based on the literature review have been presented here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Children sustaining maxillofacial trauma may undergo computed tomographic (CT) examination to exclude potential complications, which pave way for spread of infection into the meningeal region. Following treatment, these children report for management of their dental injuries as out-patients for which a separate conventional radiographic examination is usually done. The usefulness of the initial maxillofacial CT scan in evaluating dental injuries needs to be assessed so as to possibly avoid children from being subjected to a separate radiographic examination. Aims: The objective of this study was to evaluate the ability of pediatric dentists to assess intrusive injuries in primary dentition from preexisting maxillofacial CT scans of children. Settings and Design: Hospital based cross-sectional study. Subjects and Methods: Among 70 pediatric patients who were admitted following maxillofacial injuries, 10 children underwent CT examination. CT segments displaying the tooth bearing portions of the jaw were reformatted using the Dentascan software and three precalibrated pediatric dentists clinically examined the selected children and with the use of Dentascan based CT sections assessed the relative position of the intruded teeth in relation to the permanent successor and planned treatment for each individual intruded tooth. Statistical Analysis: Fleiss Kappa statistics. Results: There was perfect agreement between the interpretations of all participants (κ = 1.0000, 95% confidence interval = 0.6861-1.3139) and the interpretations of each participant with the "gold standard" evaluator (κ = 1.000). Conclusion: Maxillofacial CT scans made to assess maxillofacial injuries in children can also be reliably used for assessing intrusive injuries in primary dentition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diverse consequences to the trauma to primary dentition are sometimes difficult to explain. This report describes a rare case of sequelae to primary tooth trauma. The traumatic episode which occurred at the age of 3 years resulted in abnormally large crowns of 11 and 21 with yellowish-brown discoloration and enamel hyperplasia. It also led to dilaceration in the root of 21 and enamel hypoplasia with discoloration in 12 and 22. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]