Awareness of Oral Disorders Among Community-Dwelling Elderly Spaniards.

Introduction: Oral status has a clear impact on systemic health, a key component of successful aging. Awareness of oral disorders permits early diagnoses and treatments. This study investigates oral disorders awareness among community-dwelling elders. Methods: Community-based survey through face-to-face interviews undertaken in four cities at busy commercial and administrative areas. Results: A total of 789 people were recruited, mostly nonsmoker (60.3%) males (56.9%) with basic education (65.6%). The most frequently recalled disorder was bruxism, followed by periodontal diseases and ulcerations/aphthae. Caries was mentioned by 3.91%. Dentate participants were more aware of dental-related disorders, such as bruxism (p = .001) and periodontitis (p = .010), except for caries (p = .100). Caries awareness was related to educational level (p = .018) and smoking (p = .020), as was oral cancer (p = .019) with former smokers more aware of this neoplasm. Education was strongly related with periodontal awareness (p = .001). Conclusion: Awareness of the main oral disorders is worryingly poor among the elderly population and immediate action is required by taking advantage of the position of family nurses in the treatment of systemic chronic disorders and through educational interventions on this population subgroup to ease preventive behaviors, favor early diagnoses, and promote simpler, more effective treatments with a lower financial burden.

Periodontal awareness and what it actually means: A cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVES: To assess periodontal awareness among laypersons, to characterize the very aware of periodontitis and to disclose whether high awareness implies sufficient periodontal knowledge. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Cross-sectional study on laypersons randomly selected by quota sampling from March 2015 to June 2016. The questionnaire of periodontal awareness included aspects of aetiology, risk factors, signs and symptoms, related risks, prevention, treatment and related attitudes. It was applied by 12 interviewers in the community in each four province capitals, in a sort of pathfinder survey method. RESULTS: A 43.3% response rate was obtained, and 3,553 people entered the study. "Very aware": 19.4%. "Aware": 42.7%. "Not aware": 37.9%. Age, oral self-care and educational achievements characterized those "very aware." Any additional degree beyond compulsory education halves the chances for being "not periodontally aware." Very aware people likely to have periodontitis were elder, less educated, with a smoking history and less knowledge of the disease. Gaps of knowledge among the "very aware" were identified in all aspects except for "prevention" and "treatment.". CONCLUSIONS: Very periodontally aware people were in their late 40-60 s, followed sound oral care routines and held a degree but elicited insufficient knowledge about aetiology, signs-symptoms, related risks or periodontal risk factors.

Early oral cancer diagnosis: The Aarhus statement perspective. A systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Mortality is linked to diagnostic intervals in certain cancers. As symptom perception is conditioned by tumor site, a specific study on oral cancer is needed. METHODS: This study's inclusion criteria were original data, symptomatic primary oral squamous cell carcinoma, and exposure of interest, diagnostic interval, or diagnostic delay. The outcome of interest was survival and disease stage. A meta-analysis was undertaken to investigate the relationship between intervals to diagnosis, TNM classification, and survival in oral cancer. RESULTS: Regarding referral delay, the results present no heterogeneity and showed a risk increase in mortality of 2.48 (range = 1.39-4.42). The larger the diagnostic delay, the more advanced the stage at diagnosis. High quality studies reveal a higher risk increase than low quality studies (odds ratio [OR] = 2.44; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.36-4.36 vs OR = 1.53; 95% CI = 1.26-1.86). CONCLUSION: A longer time interval from first symptom to referral for diagnosis is a risk factor for advanced stage and mortality of oral cancer. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Head Neck 38: E2182-E2189, 2016.

Ability of Dental Students in Spain to Identify Potentially Malignant Disorders and Oral Cancer.

The aim of this study was to assess the ability of students at the School of Dentistry, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain, to diagnose oral cancer and other potentially malignant disorders, as well as to compare their ability at different stages of the learning process and evaluate their knowledge retention. Students were surveyed after they had studied oral medicine and oral pathology at two time points: midway through and near the end of their studies. The survey consisted of questions about 40 photographs of benign oral lesions, malignant oral lesions, and potentially malignant disorders. The response rate for all groups was greater than 70%. The results showed that these students' overall success rate in differentiating benign from malignant lesions averaged 73.9%. When the distinction for potentially malignant disorders was included, their average overall success rate decreased to 42.8% (p<0.001). Furthermore, the students' average success rate was at its lowest at the end of the dental program (p<0.001). Results from this study suggest that, given these students' difficulties in identifying potentially malignant disorders, an increased emphasis on cancer education in the dental curriculum may be needed for future practitioners to master this ability.

Available web-based teaching resources for health care professionals on screening for oral cancer.

OBJECTIVES: To identify websites with adequate information on oral cancer screening for healthcare professionals (HCPs) and to assess both their quality and contents. STUDY DESIGN: Websites were identified using Google and HON medical professional search engines using the terms "screening for oral cancer". The first 100 sites retrieved by each engine were analysed using the DISCERN questionnaire (reliability), the V instrument (contents on oral cancer) and further by the Flesch-Kinkaid Reading Grade Level and the Flesch Reading Ease (readability). RESULTS: The overall rating showed minimal shortcomings in the quality of the information in the websites. The coverage and correctness of information on "visual examination" was rated as fair/good, whereas updating of contents resulted very variable (eg: 81% for visual examination and 18.2% for molecular biomarkers). These results permitted to rank the websites housing relevant information for oral cancer. Top ranking websites were affiliated to the Oral Cancer Foundation (USA), WHO Collaborating Centre for oral cancer (UK) whose webpage is entitled "Oral Cancer Education and Research", and the Clinical Guidelines maintained by the British Columbia Cancer Agency (Canada) and the British Dental Association (UK) respectively. CONCLUSIONS: There are web-based, HCP-addressed, resources on screening for oral cancer housing heterogeneous information both in quality and contents. The use of specific evaluation tools permits the selection of reliable websites on this topic with a potential to improve the existing educational gaps among HCPs.

Unifocal orofacial granulomatosis in retromolar mucosa: surgical treatment with Er,Cr:YSGG laser.

Orofacial granulomatosis is defined by permanent or recurrent swelling of orofacial tissues with different multiform and multifocal clinical patterns. An 11-year old boy presented with a 2-month history of mucosa enlargement. Intraoral examination revealed an erythematous, polylobulated, exophytic lesion with a smooth surface located in retromolar mucosa, non-tender and non-infiltratated to palpation. The diagnosis was inflammatory lesion compatible with pyogenic granuloma and laser excision was decided. Haematological parameters were within normal range, as well as chest Xrays. These findings lead to a diagnosis of non-symptomatic orofacial granulomatosis, whose early diagnosis can minimize the impact of systemic-related disorders, like Chron's disease. Key words:Laser, orofacial granulomatosis, childhood, oral lesions, diagnosis.

Simulation for training in oral cancer biopsy: a surgical model and feedback from GDPs.

OBJECTIVES: To describe a new bench model for oral precancer/cancer biopsy training and to assess its effectiveness in terms of trainees' perception. STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional, descriptive, performed on 424 general dental practitioners (GDP) who undertook biopsies on a pig tongue. The participants were assessed by direct observation for 2.5 hours using specific check-lists and by means of a self-applied questionnaire. RESULTS: The workshop was perceived as "very interesting" even by those with previous surgical experience (Xi - Xj = 0.07; 95%CI= -0.20-0.09). Most GDPs considered themselves able to undertake oral biopsies on real patients after the workshop. Those who had previously received theoretical continuous education courses on oral biopsy scored higher values within the group (Xi - Xj = 0.20; 95%CI= 0.04-0.37). CONCLUSIONS: There is a need for including clinical abilities workshops when instructing on oral biopsy techniques. More studies are needed to validate the procedure and to address cognitive and communication skills.