Could Video Glasses Contribute to Behaviour Management in the 21st Century?

Dental fear in the paediatric population can be a significant barrier to providing optimal dental care. Pharmacological management techniques utilized to manage anxiety, such as conscious sedation and general anaesthesia, are expensive and require specialized equipment with additional staff training. With recent advances in technology, video glasses are an economic and novel distraction technique that may aid in improving behaviour management and facilitate dental treatment. Clinical relevance: Nervous children may find difficulty in accessing care owing to their inability to co-operate and accept dental treatment. This paper describes an innovative technique that may aid the clinician in overcoming this barrier.

Pacifiers: a review of risks vs benefits.

Pacifiers, otherwise known as dummies, have been around for many centuries. They have, however, taken many different forms, shapes and sizes. Their use is increasing and has remained controversial, with both potential risks and benefits identified in the medical and dental literature. The purpose of this article is to review some of the evidence available for and against the use of pacifiers and make recommendations for their application, maintenance and weaning. CLNICAL RELEVANCE: Dental healthcare professionals need to consider the evidence available for and against pacifiers when making recommendations to patients and their parents.

An acute exposure to intermittent negative airway pressure elicits respiratory long-term facilitation in awake humans.

BACKGROUND: A sustained elevation in respiratory drive following removal of the inducing stimulus is known as respiratory long-term facilitation (rLTF). We investigated whether an acute exposure to intermittent negative airway pressure (INAP) elicits rLTF in humans. METHOD: 13 healthy males (20.9 ±â€¯2.8 years) undertook two trials (INAP and Control). In the INAP trial participants were exposed to one hour of 30-second episodes of breathing against negative pressure (-10 cmH2O) interspersed by 60-second intervals of breathing at atmospheric pressure. In the Control trial participants breathed at atmospheric pressure for one hour. Ventilation following INAP (recovery phase) was compared to that during baseline. RESULTS: Ventilation increased from baseline to recovery in the INAP trial (14.9 ±â€¯0.9 vs 19.1 ±â€¯0.7 L/min, P = 0.002). This increase was significantly greater than the equivalent during the Control trial (P = 0.019). Data shown as mean ± SEM. CONCLUSION: In this study INAP elicited rLTF in awake, healthy humans. Further research is required to investigate the responsible mechanisms.

Effect of bismuth oxide radioopacifier content on the material properties of an endodontic Portland cement-based (MTA-like) system.

The effect of bismuth oxide (Bi2O3) radioopacifier addition on the material properties of an endodontic Portland cement-based system were investigated. Increasing Bi2O3 content from 0 to 10 wt % resulted in a deterioration of mechanical strength from 82 to 40 MPa, decreasing gradually on further addition to 29 MPa for 40 wt %. Bi2O3 content increase also gradually increased the relative porosity of the set material from 15 to 31%. Strong linear correlationships were found for increases in relative porosity, dry and strut densities, and Bi2O3 content increase. Material constants, such as critical flaw size, were found to alter drastically with Bi2O3 addition and remained constant with further increase, thus affecting the potential longevity of the endodontic model system. The cement system was also found to be comparable in composition and strength to commercial MTA but had lower porosity because of the better workability of the Portland cement component.