Factors associated with early childhood caries among 3 to 6 year old children in India: A case control study.

BACKGROUND: Early childhood caries (ECC) is a multifactorial disease as it is associated with biological, social and behavioral risk factors. However, not much research studied the influence of perinatal factors like birth weight, mode of delivery and gestational age with ECC. Aim of this study is to assess the association between ECC and risk factors, such as Socio-economic status (SES), Body mass index (BMI), Gestation age, birth weight and mode of delivery among Indian children aged 3 to 6 years. METHODS: In this cross sectional study 690 school children aged 3-6 years were included from five government and primary schools among them 345 were suffering from ECC. Data acquisition involved an oral clinical exam, anthropometric measures and a questionnaire administered in interview form to acquire information on socio-demographic data and Gestational age; mode of delivery; birth weight and socio-economic status. Chi-squared test was used to test the association between categorical variables. Multiple logistic regression analysis used to assess strength of association between risk factors and ECC while controlling known confounders. RESULTS: Multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that male children, increasing age, preterm birth and cesarean section are associated with increased risk of developing ECC. CONCLUSIONS: Perinatal factors play a vital role in determination ECC burden. Early life interventions and precautions can be useful strategy to control and prevent ECC.

Ethnic Association of Cusp of Carabelli Trait and Shoveling Trait in an Indian Population.

INTRODUCTION: Variations in the structure of teeth have always been of great interest to the dentist from the scientific as well as practical point of view. Additionally, ever since decades inter trait relationships have been a useful means to categorize populations to which an individual belongs. AIM: To determine the association between Cusp of Carabelli and Shoveling Trait in a selected Indian population native of Bangalore city, Karnataka, India. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was carried out in 1885 children aged between 7-10 years. Casts of the study subjects were made to study the presence of Cusp of Carabelli of right maxillary permanent molar and shoveling trait of right maxillary permanent central incisor using the Dahlberg's classification and Hrdliucka's classification respectively. Linear regression was used to assess the association of cusp of carabelli trait with the tooth dimensions and logistic regression was used to evaluate the association of the carabelli trait with gender and presence/absence of shoveling. RESULTS: A 40.5% of subjects had Cusp of Carabelli on first molar and 68.2% had shoveling on upper central incisor. The study revealed positive association between the two traits studied in the population. A significant difference was also found with presence of Cusp of Carabelli and the buccolingual tooth dimension of the maxillary molar (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: There is an association between the Cusp of Carabelli and the shoveling trait in the present study population, and this will be valuable in the determination of ethnic origin of an individual.

Prevalence of aberrant dental morphological details in 6-10 year old school children in an Indian population.

BACKGROUND: Variations in the structure of teeth have always been a great curiosity to the dentist from the scientific and practical point of view. AIM: To evaluate the prevalence of a few aberrant morphological features namely, cusp of Carabelli in primary maxillary second molar and in permanent first molar, five cusp in primary maxillary second molar and permanent first molar, shoveling and double shoveling with respect to permanent maxillary central incisors, four cusped primary mandibular second molar and permanent first molar, six cusped primary mandibular second molar and permanent first molar and seven cusped primary mandibular second molar and permanent first molar in 6-10 year old children belonging to the East Bengaluru, a City in India. DESIGN: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 2111 children by two stage sampling method. Type III examination was performed. The findings were subjected to Chi-square test. RESULTS: 83.8% of the studied population had one or more of the variations checked for, as mentioned above. The variation most commonly seen was double shoveling (66.6%) followed by shoveling (65.7%). No significant results were observed in any trait with respect to gender. CONCLUSION: This study is the first of its kind, providing a baseline data of the prevalence of morphological details in the pediatric Indian population.

Novel phosphorus radical-based routes to horsfiline.

[reaction: see text]. Radicals derived from the phosphorus reagents, ethylpiperidine hypophosphite (EPHP) and diethylphosphine oxide (DEPO), are used in two related approaches to synthesis of the alkaloid horsfiline (1). In particular, DEPO proves beneficial for effecting cyclizations at 80 degrees C that are difficult or impossible with Bu(3)SnH.