Medical Conditions, Oral Health Practices, and Barriers to Treatment among Patients Visiting a Teaching Dental Hospital in Eastern Saudi Arabia.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the prevalence of medical conditions, oral hygiene practices, and dental visits among patients who attended a teaching dental hospital in Dammam, Saudi Arabia. Materials & Methods. This retrospective cross-sectional study used patient records from 2009 to 2015 from the dental hospital of the College of Dentistry Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam. Patients' demographics, medical history, oral hygiene practices, reasons for attending the facility, attendance patterns, and smoking habits were studied. RESULTS: The study included 1502 records of patients with 65.1% of males and 34.9% of females. The prevalence of medical conditions was 25.7% in the study. The most common medical conditions included diabetes mellitus (7.2%), hypertension (6.5%), and anemia (4.7%). Only 21.8% reported visiting the dental hospital in the past one year. The prevalence of smoking was 16.7%, and this did not differ significantly between healthy and medically compromised patients (P=0.165). Fillings were the most common (21.6%) reason for visiting a dental hospital, followed by treatment for periodontal problems (12.9%) and oral lesions (12.6%), whereas treatment for braces (orthodontics) was the least common (5%) reason for visiting the hospital. The reasons for visiting the hospital did not differ significantly between healthy and medically compromised patients (P > 0.05). The three most common barriers to dental visits included long waiting time (18.1%), fear of dental treatment (14.4%), and difficulty in getting an appointment (11.3%). CONCLUSION: The study showed that dental patients had a high prevalence of medical conditions. Diabetes mellitus was the most prevalent problem. Most patients visited the dental hospital to receive restorative treatment, and a long waiting time was the most common barrier to dental visits. Public health measures should be taken to improve the general health and oral care of patients.

Five decades of the International Endodontic Journal: Bibliometric overview 1967-2020.

AIM: The International Endodontic Journal (IEJ) has served as a platform for research and clinical practice in Endodontics since 1967. This study provides a bibliographic analysis and overview of the publications that have appeared in the IEJ from 1967 to 2020. METHODOLOGY: A literature search was performed in Elsevier's Scopus database to locate all the publications of the International Endodontic Journal. Various bibliometric software packages including the open-source visualization software Gephi and Biblioshiny (version 2.0) were employed for data visualization and analysis. RESULTS: A total of 3739 records with citation and bibliographic details were selected and retrieved to allow a bibliometric analysis to be performed. The bibliometric analysis indicates that the IEJ has grown both in terms of productivity and influence. Over time, the journal has been associated with an increase in the number of manuscripts published and the citations they have attracted, but with minor downward fluctuations in citations in the last few years. Bibliographic coupling of the IEJ articles revealed that the major research themes published in the journal include 'endodontics', 'root canal treatment', 'calcium hydroxide', 'apical periodontitis', 'mineral trioxide aggregate', 'microbiology', 'cyclic fatigue', 'cone-beam computed tomography' and 'micro-computed tomography'. Authors affiliated to institutions in the UK were the major contributors to the journal and were linked with other countries such as Brazil, USA and Malaysia. The largest number of publications were from the University of São Paulo, Brazil. CONCLUSION: The IEJ is one of the leading journals in Endodontology and has been providing a platform for innovative research and clinical reports for more than 50 years. Publications have been associated with a wide range of authors, institutions and countries around the world.