Oral hygiene and oral health behavior, periodontal complaints and oral health-related quality of life in pregnant women.

OBJECTIVES: This questionnaire-based cross-sectional study aimed in the evaluation of oral hygiene and oral health behavior, periodontal complaints and oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) in pregnant women in southwest-Saxony, Germany. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Consecutive patients attending the clinics for Obstetrics and Gynecology, Heinrich-Braun-Klinikum Zwickau, Germany, were recruited in the years 2020 and 2021. The evaluation consisted of three parts: (I) dental and oral hygiene behavior, (II) periodontal complaints and (III) German short form of oral health impact profile (OHIP G14) to assess OHRQoL. RESULTS: 853 out of 1056 participants were included in the study. The pregnant women reported that they have received information on oral health during pregnancy more often from gynecologists than from dentists. Slightly more than half of the participants (51.5%) rated to regularly undergo a professional tooth cleaning. Similarly, nearly half of the women stated to perform interdental cleaning (55.8%). The most common periodontal complaint was bleeding of the gums (45.4%). The OHIP G14 findings of all questions as well as sum scores showed a median of 0. Regression analysis revealed that regular professional tooth cleaning was a predictor of better OHRQoL (ß - 0.698, CI95 0.049-1.299; p < 0.04). CONCLUSION: Oral hygiene and oral health behavior of pregnant women in southwest-Saxony requires improvement. While the overall OHRQoL of the cohort was not reduced, professional tooth cleaning and thus professional preventive measures can support OHRQoL during pregnancy. Improved interdisciplinary oral health care concepts for pregnant women should be fostered. These concepts can also positively influence OHRQoL issues.

Indirect determination of low vapour pressures using solid-phase microextraction--application to tetrachlorobenzenes and tetrachlorobenzyltoluenes.

There is still a gap of reliable vapour pressure data at ambient temperature for low volatile organic substances due to the difficult and time-consuming determination using the classical methods. Static headspace extraction with a solid-phase microextraction (SPME) fibre in combination with gas chromatographic analysis provides an inexpensive tool for the indirect determination of low vapour pressures down to 10(-5) Pa. The procedure consists of two steps: (a) exposure of SPME fibre in the headspace above the test chemical over minutes to hours and (b) desorption and quantification of extracted amount. The calibration was performed using low volatile reference substances with well-known vapour pressures. A good correlation was found between substance uptakes of SPME fibre and vapour pressures. The method was applied, e.g. to tetrachlorobenzenes and to selected tetrachlorobenzyltoluenes with questionable vapour pressures. We obtained values between 0.98 and 13.5 Pa for the former and results between 0.13 and 0.68 mPa for the latter group of congeners. The scope of the method can be extended to substances with even lower vapour pressures, provided that reliable reference data are available.

Determination of lindane leachability in soil-biosolid systems and its bioavailability in wheat plants.

The leachability of lindane from different biosolid amended soils was determined and compared to its bioavailability. Sand, soil, and a mixture of soil-sand (1:1 w/w) were spiked with lindane, blended with different amounts of biosolids, and subjected to a leaching process with water that lasted for 1-28 d. This procedure is in accordance with ISO/TS 21268-1: 2007. After these batch tests, lindane was extracted from the leachates using three different solvent-free microextraction techniques, including solid phase microextraction (SPME), stir-bar sorptive extraction (SBSE), and silicone rod extraction (SRE). The amount of lindane was determined with thermal desorption and gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The efficiencies of the three microextraction techniques were statistically different, and the efficiency could be related to the amount of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) in each extraction device. However, all of the techniques provide data that shows that the leachability of lindane is dependent on the amount of organic matter contained in the matrix. The results of the lindane leachability assay were compared to the bioavailability of lindane, which was determined by measuring the amount of lindane that accumulated in the roots of wheat plants grown in similar soil-biosolid systems. It was confirmed that the amount of organic matter in the matrix is a determining factor for lindane immobilization. The presence of biosolids decreases the mobility of lindane in all of the systems under study. Similarly, increasing biosolid concentrations in the soil significantly decreased the bioavailability of lindane and, consequently, plant absorption. The good correlation (R(2)=0.997) between the leachability of lindane from the matrix and plant absorption of lindane indicates that the proposed biomimetic methodology can predict the bioavailability of lindane in a time period as short as 7d. The results of this work confirm that amending contaminated soils with biosolids is beneficial for immobilizing lindane and helps prevent the percolation of lindane through the soil profile and into groundwater.