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To compare the frequency of patients’ oral health problems and prevention needs among Slovenian and international dentists with the aim to validate the four oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) dimensions across six clinical dental fields in all World Health Organization (WHO) regions.

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Aim: The aim of this study was to assess the level of overall career satisfaction in relation to various personal and work-related factors among the dentists in the Republic of Macedonia., Materials and Methods: The sample comprised 118 registered dentists, working in different conditions (34 public practice dentists, 32 completely private, 42 private dentists who work with a health insurance fund and 10 concessioners). All of them filled in a questionnaire which contained 16 items, divided into five groups. The different clusters of questions were related to various working conditions and personal factors. The first four groups of questions were answered with a--point Likert format with a score range from 1 (very dissatisfied) to 4 (very satisfied). In the fifth group, dentists chose one of four offered answers. The statistical analyses were made by one-way ANOVA and chi-square tests., Results: Significant differences related to working conditions were found between public practitioners (moderately dissatisfied) and private practitioners (very satisfied) (F=41.41 (df=3); p<0.01). A high prevalence of dentists (89.83%) had felt stressed on their work place and 61.8% of public dental health practitioners had felt stressed at work "very often". The main sources of job-related stress for public dental practitioners were their supervisors (50%) and patients (26. 47%), while private practitioners were mostly stressed by inspectors (76.19%) and patients (21.87%) (χ2=44.5 (df=9); p<0.01)., Conclusion: The findings in our study showed overall low levels of career satisfaction among the dentists (public and private) in the Republic of Macedonia. The finding that high percentages of dentists feel stress at their work place very often requires further exploration.

This paper gives an overview of the development of health insurance and some aspects of the oral health care in the Republic of Macedonia since it became independent in 1991. First, it describes the provision of oral health care and treatments funded by the public health care system. The dental educational system and available epidemiological data are then described. Generally, few data are available about the dental workforce in recent years, especially regarding dental epidemiology. There are various specialisations in dentistry recognised in Macedonia, as well as three subspecialisations: implantology, maxillofacial and reconstructive prosthodontics, and prosthodontics for children. One aspect of particular interest is that there are many dental faculties in Macedonia and many dentists, relative to the population and the country's requirements.

Acrylics are compounds polymerized from monomers of acrylic, metacrylic acid or acrylonitrates. The purpose of this paper is to present the technology and use of acrylics for provisional dentine protection in the practice of dental prosthodontics. For this reason, we followed 120 clinical cases from the everyday clinical practice, divided into 4 groups of 30 patients who needed prosthetic reconstruction. The first group included cases in which we applied celluloid crowns for dentine protection, for the second group we used acrylic teeth from a set of teeth for complete dentures; in the third and fourth groups the fabrication was done with the system of an impression matrix and the acrylic resin block technique respectively. In all the examined patients, the gingival index by Silness and Loe and the vitality of the dental pulp were verified clinically, after preparation and 8 days from the placement of the provisional crown. The value for dental sensitivity measured after preparation was 2.59, and 8 days after the placement of the provisional crown it bwas 3.1. From these results we can conclude that after the 8th day from the placement of the provisional crown, there was an adaptation period, characterized by a decrease in the painful sensations. The value of the Silness and Loe gingival index measured after the preparation was 1.34, and 8 days from the placement of the provisional crown was 0.94. The results inclined us to the fact that the provisional acrylic crowns facilitated the reparation of the periodontal tissue.

Bruxism, as an etiological factor for the development of TMD, includes different disorders of the TMJ and the masticatory muscles, exhibiting pain and disruption of the stomatognathic functions. Our goal was to study patients with bruxism and TMD from everyday dental clinical practice, in terms of diagnosis, identification of etiological factors, classification and treatment of these disorders. We treated 120 patients, divided into 2 groups of 60 patients. The first group had disorders of the TMJ, and the second of the masticatory muscles. The groups were divided into subgroups of 20 patients with dislocation of the articular disk with or without reduction and inflammation of TMJ. The second group was organized from patients with myofascial pain, myositis and muscular trismus. Our conservative treatment consisted of patient education, NSAID, myorelaxants, fabrication of prosthetics, repositioning and stabilization splints. The progress of the patients was followed immediately after the delivery of the prosthetics and the splint, after 1, 6 and 12 months. The results showed that in patients with disorders of the TMJ there were visible signs of recovery after 6 months in 68.3% patients, and in 85% after 12 months. In the second group we achieved faster results with the elimination of symptoms. Patients with afflictions of the muscles in 88.3% of cases noticed relief of symptoms even after 6 months and in 98.3% after 12 months. As therapists we concluded that timely treated complications of bruxism and TMD prevent the destruction of the TMJ, masticatory muscles and the entire stomatognatic system.

Aim: The aim of this study was to adapt the Oral Health Impact Profile-49 (OHIP-49) for use by the Macedonian-speaking population and to assess its psychometric properties., Methods: After piloting a back-translated version of the OHIP-49 questionnaire in Macedonian, the resulting Macedonian version of the Oral Health Impact Profile questionnaire (OHIP-MAC49) was administered to 247 patients who had been recruited in four groups: Group 1 was composed of 163 randomly chosen blood donors representing the general population; Group 2 was a convenience sample of 20 patients who attended a clinic for relief of dental pain; Group 3 was a sample of 29 prosthodontic patients; and Group 4 was composed of 35 students. In order to ensure that all questions were answered, data were gathered from participants in the four groups by trained and experienced interviewers. The internal reliability of the OHIP-MAC49 scale and its constituent seven subscales was calculated for Groups 1, 3, and 4 by using Cronbach's alpha coefficient and average inter-item correlations. The test-retest stability of the instrument was estimated by calculating the intra-class correlation coefficients and the limits of agreement of the scores obtained from the participants in Groups 3 and 4 in a repeat interview three to four weeks after the first interview. Convergent validity was evaluated by comparing OHIP-MAC49 scores-both total (0-4) and subscores (2-4) with self-reported health for Group 3 patients-using the Spearman coefficient of correlation. For the purpose of evaluating group validity, the OHIPMAC49 scores of Group 3 patients were compared by using Spearman's correlation coefficient. In addition, comparisons were made between patients with and without burning-mouth symptoms, temporomandibular pain, joint clicking, and oral habits (point-biserial correlation). The OHIP-MAC49 scores of subjects with and without dentures in Group 1 were compared by using point-biserial correlation. The responsiveness of the instrument was assessed by calculating the difference in OHIP-MAC49 means (total subscores) in Group 2 patients prior to and after treatment for relief of pain., Results: The internal consistency of each subscale and the whole scale estimated was excellent. Cronbach's alpha coefficients for whole scale ranged from 0.92 to 0.95. The intra-class correlation coefficients ranged from 0.83 to 0.99, suggesting that the instrument had satisfactory reliability in terms of time stability. The questionnaire had acceptable responsiveness, confirmed by a significant differences (P<0.01) between the mean OHIP-MAC49 score at baseline and follow-up, both for the total sum (0-4) and the sum scores (2-4). Convergent validity, evaluated by comparing OHIP-MAC49 scores with self-reported oral health in Group 1 and Group 3 patients, was confirmed, because all correlation coefficients were significant (P<0.01). The results from testing the anticipated differences on the basis of seven self-reported indicators of oral health in Group 3 patients, as well as the differences in OHIP-MAC49 scores between subjects in general population who wore and did not wear dentures, strongly suggest that the instrument has satisfactory group validity., Conclusion: The Macedonian version of the OHIP-49 demonstrated satisfactory validity, excellent reliability, and sufficient responsiveness and therefore can be used for assessing the impact of oral health on different aspects of quality of life in Macedonia.