Do really parents brush their children's teeth better?

AIM: Plaque removal from first permanent molar teeth was evaluated when conventional and a new silicone tooth and gum brush was used. Also, the effectiveness of parents' brushing was compared with childrens'. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Study design: This crossover clinical study was conducted with 9 children aged 5 to 7 years, with 18 mandibular first permanent molar teeth which were partially erupted. Four appointments were planned at one-week intervals and at every appointment, dental plaque on teeth was disclosed first. At their first appointment, the children were given a conventional toothbrush, and at their second appointment they were given a silicone tooth andgum brush . Then, at the third appointment, parents performed brushing with a conventional toothbrush, and then brushed with a silicone tooth & gum brush at the fourth appointment. Before and after brushing, photographs were taken for baseline and final plaque scores to determine Occlusal Plaque Index with Image Analysis Software Program. STATISTICS: Anova was used for comparison of groups with p<0.05 considered to be significant. RESULTS: There was statistically significant difference between baseline and final plaque scores among all of the groups (p<0.05) but, there was not statistically significant difference between the groups (p>0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Children under the age of nine are usually believed to lack the developmental skills needed to brush their own teeth, and as a result, the silicone tooth & gum brush might be recommended instead of brushing with parents.

Dental anxiety and oral health-related quality of life in children following dental rehabilitation under general anesthesia or intravenous sedation: A prospective cross-sectional study.

PURPOSE: The study aimed to investigate dental anxiety and oral health-related quality of life among children undergoing dental rehabilitation under general anesthesia (GA) and intravenous sedation (IVS). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Participants were 99 healthy children aged 3-5 or 6-12 years operated under GA or IVS. Dental anxiety before treatment and 1 month postoperatively were measured using the Frankl behavior scale (FBS), the venham picture test (VPT), the early childhood oral health impact scale (ECOHIS), and the children's fear survey schedule-dental subscale (CFSS-DS). Data were analyzed using Student's t-test and Mann-Whitney U-test. RESULTS: ECOHIS scores decreased in all groups. VPT scores increased in the 3-5-year-olds treated under GA (P = 0.003). Postoperative CFSS-DS anxiety scores were lower in IVS groups. FBS scores were significantly higher for both age groups (P < 0.001). There was no effect of numbers of extracted or treated teeth. CONCLUSIONS: Dental rehabilitation under GA and IVS improved the quality of life and dental behavior. In the 6-12-year-olds, there was no statistically significant difference between children undergoing dental operations under GA and those undergoing dental operations under IVS. Dental anxiety decreased in 3-5-year-olds after treatment under GA but not after IVS.

Otodental syndrome: a case presentation in a 6-year old child.

BACKGROUND: Otodental syndrome is a rare condition characterised by globodontia, and sensorineural high frequency hearing loss. To date, only 20 cases of otodental syndrome have been reported. CASE REPORT: A 6 year-old girl presented with a chief complaint of delay in the eruption of primary canines. Following clinical, radiographic and audiologic evaluations, the patient was diagnosed with otodental syndrome. CONCLUSION: Globodontia is a diagnostic feature of the otodental syndrome, which often provides the path to discovery of the associated hearing loss. Missing teeth, arch-size discrepancies, chewing problems and teething disturbances are the other major complications.

Effect of laser and air abrasion pretreatment on the microleakage of a fissure sealant applied with conventional and self etch adhesives.

AIM: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of different pretreatment protocols along with different bonding agents on the microleakage of a fissure sealant material. METHOD: A total of 144 freshly extracted noncarious human third molars were used The teeth were randomly assigned into three groups with respect to the pretreatment protocol employed: A. Air Abrasion B. Er,Cr:YSGG laser C. No pretreatment (Control). In each group specimens were further subjected to one of the following procedures before application of the sealant: 1. %36 Phosphoric acid-etch (AE) (DeTrey Conditioner 36/Denstply, UK) 2.AE+Prime&Bond NT (Dentsply, UK) 3. Clearfil S3 Bond (Kuraray, Japan) 4. Clearfil SE Bond (Kuraray, Japan). All teeth were sealed with the same fissure sealant material (Conseal F/SDI, Australia). Sealed teeth were further subjected to thermocycling, dye penetration test, sectioning and quantitative image analysis. Statistical evaluation of the microleakage data was performed with two way independent ANOVA and multiple comparisons test at p = 0.05. For qualitative evaluation 2 samples from each group were examined under Scanning Electron Microscopy. RESULTS: Microleakage was affected by both the type of pretreatment and the subsequent bonding protocols employed (p < 0.05). Overall, the highest (Mean = 0.36 mm) and lowest (Mean = 0.06 mm) microleakage values were observed in samples with unpretreated enamel sealed by S3+Conseal F and samples with laser pretreated enamel sealed by Acid Etch+Prime&-Bond+Conseal F protocols, respectively (p < 0.05). In the acid-etch group samples pretreated with laser yielded in slightly lower microleakage scores when compared with unpretreated samples and samples pretreated with air abrasion but the statistical significance was not important (p = 0,179). Similarly, when bonding agent is applied following acid-etching procedure, microleakage scores were not affected from pretreatment protocol (p = 0,615) (intact enamel/laser or air-abrasion). For both all-in one and two step self etch adhesive systems, unpretreated samples demonstrated the highest microleakage scores. CONCLUSIONS: For the groups in which bonding agent was utilized, pretreatments did not effected microleakage. Both the tested pretreatment protocols and adhesive procedures had different effects on the sealing properties of Conseal F in permanent tooth enamel.

Effect of two anti-erosion pastes on surface roughness of different restorative materials.

AIM: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of two antierosive pastes, Pronamel and Tooth Mousse Plus, on surface roughness of two composite (Filtek Supreme Ultra Universal Restorative and TPH Spectrum Restorative), one compomer (Dyract Extra), and two conventional glass ionomer restorative materials (Ionofil U and SDI) MATERIALS AND METHODS STUDY DESIGN: 14 discs (10 mm diameter x 2 mm thickness) were prepared for each material (n =14 x 5). The discs were randomly divided into two groups to receive either GC Tooth Mousse Plus application or Sensodyne Pronamel application with toothbrush. The surface roughness of the brushed samples were recorded by laser profilometer. STATISTICS Wilcoxon, Kruskal Wallis test and multiple comparison tests were used to analyse the data. RESULTS: It was revealed that the surface roughness of the Filtek Supreme, TPH, Dyract and Riva Selfcure materials were not affected from application of either pastes (p>0.005). However, surface roughness of manually mixed glass ionomer (Ionofil U) was significantly increased when brushed with both Tooth Mousse and Pronamel paste (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: Neither Pronamel, nor Tooth Mousse caused a significant change on the surface roughness of tested restorative materials except Ionofil U. It was significantly increased following brushing with either paste.