Perception of Laypersons to Appearance of Orthodontic Appliances their Acceptance and Value for Money: A Questionnaire Study

Introduction: Orthodontic market has experienced remarkableevolution in the development and creation of orthodonticappliances that are designed to appeal the patients. With theadvent of newer technology like invention of CAD-CAMthe brackets travelled its life from a bulky metal appliance,to aesthetic brackets (ceramics and plastic brackets), lingualbracket systems and finally bracket-less approach (Invisalignand Clear Path). This, although enhanced the aesthetic aspect,but lost its dexterity to the common man due the increasingtreatment cost (Value). Study aimed at evaluation of Perceptionof Laypersons to Appearance of Orthodontic Appliances, theirAcceptance and value for money.Material and methods: A sample of 200 laypersons wereselected by simple random sampling. A questionnaire wasframed for evaluation of attractiveness, acceptability andvalue of orthodontic appliances as grouped from group 1 togroup 6 and distributed amongst laypersons. The statisticalanalysis was done using the Statistical Package for the SocialScience (SPSS version 22, Armonk, NY: IBM Corp) andDescriptive statistics were performed.Result: The attractiveness and acceptability of appliances goin favour of ceramic brackets with aesthetic arch wire andaesthetic ligature ties.Conclusion: But the practical acceptability of appliancesbased on three parameters conclusively favour ceramicbrackets with standard arch wire and metal ligature ties whichfulfils both the aesthetics and cost effectiveness.

An observational study to compare adenosine deaminase level among diabetes patients

Background: Obesity is a complex disorder that involves some degree of over-consumption1 coupled with a metabolic derangement. As ADA has been putatively associated with inflammation, and adipose tissue inflammation is the hallmark of insulin resistance in obese T2DM patients. This study attempted to compare serum ADA in T2DM subjects.Methods: This observational cross-sectional study was conducted in the Department of Biochemistry at MGM Medical College and MY Hospital. All the patients and controls were clinically examined, and routine biochemical tests were analyzed for all subjects. ANOVA has been applied to assess the variance between groups.Results: Mean age of controls was 56.91 years where as mean age in the group of a subject with Obesity with diabetes was 40.91 years and with Obesity without diabetes was 48.10 years. ADA level was more among diabetes patients having obesity than diabetes patients having no obesity and controls.Conclusions: This is very much evident through this study that ADA may be treated as prognostic predictor of diabetes either linked to obesity or not, though more studies are warranted in same direction to make this finding conclusive and acceptable biochemical evidence.

Effect of orthodontic pain on quality of life of patients undergoing orthodontic treatment

Introduction: Pain is an important aspect of oral health-related quality of life (OHRQOL). Understanding how patients' pain experiences during their treatment affect their quality of life (QOL) is important and the absence of pain/discomfort is important for achieving a high QOL. Aim and Objective: The objective of this study was to assess the relationship between pain and OHRQOL among patients wearing fixed orthodontic appliances and to evaluate whether patient motivation and counseling had an effect on the pain and discomfort. Materials and Methods: The McGill-Short-Form with visual analog scale and present pain intensity and Oral Health Impact Profile-14 indices were used to determine the intensity and severity of pain and to evaluate the QOL of 200 adolescents undergoing fixed orthodontic treatment during different phases of treatment. Results: There was a significant correlation found between pain and the QOL of patients undergoing orthodontic treatment. Overall score of OHRQOL increased significantly (mean 43.5 ± 10.9) in the initial phase of treatment where the incidence of severe to moderate pain was reported in 80% patients. Ninety-five percent patients felt pain or discomfort. After 1 day of appliance placement, more than 85% of patients experienced severe to mild pain whereas 9% of patients suffered very severe pain. Pain reduced over a week, and at the end of a month, 10.5% patients had moderate pain whereas majority, i.e., 58% of patients complained of only mild pain (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Pain is important sequelae of orthodontic treatment and has a significant effect on the QOL of orthodontic patients, especially during the initial phases of treatment. Patient motivation and counseling by the orthodontist have a profounding effect in reducing the pain and discomfort, improving the QOL, and an overall improvement in the patient compliance affecting the successful outcome of the treatment.

Isoniazid preventive therapy programmes for healthcare workers in India: Translating evidence into policy.

Background. Occupational tuberculosis (TB) among healthcare workers (HCWs) is an important public health issue, especially in India where HCWs are exposed to a high burden of TB and infrastructural infection control procedures are inadequate. We examined the need for implementing isoniazid preventive therapy (IPT) programmes to protect Indian HCWs from occupational TB. Methods. Bardach’s 8-fold path was followed to analyse and formulate the policy for introducing IPT programmes for HCWs in India. The results of surveillance with tuberculin skin testing (TST) and treatment of latent TB infection with isoniazid (INH) for HCWs belonging to two different age groups (<30 years and >30 years) were compared with each other and with the alternative of maintaining status quo, i.e. no surveillance and no therapy, under various parameters such as the lifetime risks of active TB, deaths due to TB, benefit–risk ratios, costsavings to the health system and relative risk reductions. Results. The lifetime risk of TB was found to be higher among HCWs in the age group of <30 years. IPT for HCWs reduced the lifetime risks of TB and death due to TB in both age groups, with better results in the age group of <30 years. The relative lifetime risk reduction of active TB was 24.04% for the age group of <30 years and 19.92% for the age group of >30 years. The relative lifetime risk reduction of death due to TB by administration of IPT was from 13.96% to 19.62% in the two age groups. The benefit–risk ratio of IPT was 11.24 for the age group of <30 years and 2.88 for the age group of >30 years. IPT was associated with an approximate savings of `4000–8000 for each case prevented. Conclusion. TB is a major occupational hazard for Indian HCWs. The inclusion of IPT programmes in the national policy to combat TB, along with infrastructural infection control measures, can contribute to reduction in workplace TB. IPT programmes for HCWs in the younger age group have better results in terms of prevention of active TB, TB-related mortality and INHinduced hepatitis as compared to the older age group. There is an urgent need for a mechanism of targeted testing and treatment of latent TB infection to minimize the risk of occupational exposure for TB among HCWs in all age groups.