Emerging Trends in Virtual Surgical Planning for Orthognathic Surgery: A Global Overview of Research and Publication Patterns.

PURPOSE: Anticipating trends and pursuing innovative ideas are imperative for the advancement of science. The objective of this study was to conduct a bibliometric analysis of 3-dimensional virtual simulation in orthognathic surgery, explore its implications for clinical practice, and identify future publication trends through digital tools. METHODS: This study employed a retrospective bibliometric analysis using data obtained from the Web of Science database. The search strategy focused on articles related to orthognathic surgery and virtual simulation techniques. RStudio and bibliometrix tools were used to data mining. The independent variables retrieved from digital analysis were the emerging themes related to virtual planning in orthognathic surgery. The trends that we identified were facial esthetics, digital workflow, personalized treatments, and complex cases. The primary outcome variable was the number of publications dedicated to virtual simulation in orthognathic surgery, along with secondary outcomes such as citation rates, language of publication, country of origin, institutional affiliations, and emerging research themes. Covariates included variables related to publication characteristics, author affiliations, and geographic distribution of publications. Publication analyses over time involved descriptive statistics, regression analysis, Pearson correlation tests, and graphical representation techniques. Statistical significance was set at a 95% confidence interval (P value < .05). RESULTS: A comprehensive analysis of 987 articles reveals the impact of included authors, with a mean h-index of 62 (SD = 18.4). The analysis further illuminates a discernible upward trend in publications on this subject, showcasing a linear pattern with a notable R2 value of 0.88 (P = .021). English remains the predominant language of publication, accounting for 97.97% of articles, while contributions hailed from a diverse spectrum of 56 countries. Interestingly, a moderate correlation emerges between publication numbers and gross domestic product per capita (r = 0.30, P = .044) and total area (r = 0.30, P = .032), whereas a more substantial correlation is evident with total population (r = 0.61, P = .034). Notably, the most cited article amassed 254 citations. Furthermore, a Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.97 underscores the correlation between citation density and the year of publication. CONCLUSION: The bibliometric indicators provided insights for evaluating research productivity and the quality of research output. Emerging themes included facial esthetics, 3-dimensional printing, and the utilization of custom-made templates and implants. This study holds relevance for maxillofacial surgeons, academics, and researchers alike.

Self-reported preparedness of final year undergraduate dental students and interns in Saudi Arabia: a multi-institutional study.

BACKGROUND: Contemporary undergraduate dental education aims to equip the dental students with clinical competence, empathy, and professionalism to enable them to deliver safe and effective dental care to the communities. The purpose of this study was to assess the self-reported preparedness of final year dental students and interns at three Saudi dental institutions, using the pre-validated Dental Undergraduates Preparedness Assessment Scale (DU-PAS). METHODS: A cross-sectional study design was employed to assess the self-reported preparedness of the participants using the DU-PAS. Following ethics approval, a probability sampling technique was used to recruit undergraduate dental students and interns from three dental institutions in Saudi Arabia. The data was collected online on Google Forms and all participants provided their consent to participate in the study prior to providing their responses to DU-PAS. RESULTS: Responses were received from 397 participants including 171 males and 226 females yielding a response rate of 60.3%. The total mean score of the participants was 81.85 ± 13.11. Although higher scores were reported in males, the interaction between gender and DU-PAS scores were not significant. Interaction between DU-PAS scores and stage of education showed significant effect of the stage of education with interns reporting higher overall scores. The participants reported that they were able to perform most clinical procedures independently. However, low confidence was reported in performing multi-rooted endodontics, fabrication of removable dentures and orthodontic assessment. The participants also expressed their confidence in a wide range of behavioural attributes related to communication, teamworking and professionalism. However, lack of experience was noted in referral for oral cancer, interpreting research, and evaluation of new dental products using an evidence-based approach. CONCLUSION: The study provides useful insights into the self-reported preparedness of undergraduate dental students and interns in three dental institutions. While the overall preparedness of the participants was comparable to their international peers, the findings underscore the need for further enhancements to the teaching and training of undergraduate students particularly in multirooted endodontics, removable prosthodontics and orthodontics.

Using AI-Based Virtual Companions to Assist Adolescents with Autism in Recognizing and Addressing Cyberbullying.

Social media platforms and online gaming sites play a pervasive role in facilitating peer interaction and social development for adolescents, but they also pose potential threats to health and safety. It is crucial to tackle cyberbullying issues within these platforms to ensure the healthy social development of adolescents. Cyberbullying has been linked to adverse mental health outcomes among adolescents, including anxiety, depression, academic underperformance, and an increased risk of suicide. While cyberbullying is a concern for all adolescents, those with disabilities are particularly susceptible and face a higher risk of being targets of cyberbullying. Our research addresses these challenges by introducing a personalized online virtual companion guided by artificial intelligence (AI). The web-based virtual companion's interactions aim to assist adolescents in detecting cyberbullying. More specifically, an adolescent with ASD watches a cyberbullying scenario in a virtual environment, and the AI virtual companion then asks the adolescent if he/she detected cyberbullying. To inform the virtual companion in real time to know if the adolescent has learned about detecting cyberbullying, we have implemented fast and lightweight cyberbullying detection models employing the T5-small and MobileBERT networks. Our experimental results show that we obtain comparable results to the state-of-the-art methods despite having a compact architecture.

Energy Efficiency Optimisation of Joint Computational Task Offloading and Resource Allocation Using Particle Swarm Optimisation Approach in Vehicular Edge Networks.

With the progression of smart vehicles, i.e., connected autonomous vehicles (CAVs), and wireless technologies, there has been an increased need for substantial computational operations for tasks such as path planning, scene recognition, and vision-based object detection. Managing these intensive computational applications is concerned with significant energy consumption. Hence, for this article, a low-cost and sustainable solution using computational offloading and efficient resource allocation at edge devices within the Internet of Vehicles (IoV) framework has been utilised. To address the quality of service (QoS) among vehicles, a trade-off between energy consumption and computational time has been taken into consideration while deciding on the offloading process and resource allocation. The offloading process has been assigned at a minimum wireless resource block level to adapt to the beyond 5G (B5G) network. The novel approach of joint optimisation of computational resources and task offloading decisions uses the meta-heuristic particle swarm optimisation (PSO) algorithm and decision analysis (DA) to find the near-optimal solution. Subsequently, a comparison is made with other proposed algorithms, namely CTORA, CODO, and Heuristics, in terms of computational efficiency and latency. The performance analysis reveals that the numerical results outperform existing algorithms, demonstrating an 8% and a 5% increase in energy efficiency.

Self-perceived preparedness of new dental graduates from a Middle Eastern university.

INTRODUCTION: Preparedness for independent clinical practice is a core goal of undergraduate dental education. The aim of this study was to evaluate the self-reported preparedness for the dental practice among new dental graduates from a University in the Middle East. METHODS: Following ethics approval, a purposive sampling techniques were used to invite newly qualified dental graduates at a Middle Eastern University. A validated research instrument, namely the Dental Undergraduate Preparedness Assessment Scale (DU-PAS), was used to evaluate the self-perceived preparedness of the participants. Data collection was undertaken online using Google Forms and data were analysed to compute the descriptive statistics, reliability and demographic differences among the participants. RESULTS: A total of 82 participants provided their response yielding a response rate of 68%. The participants included 49 males and 33 females. The overall reliability of DU-PAS was excellent. (α = 0.93). The participants included less than 40% of participants were able independently to prescribe medications, assess orthodontics needs and perform endodontic treatment on multirooted teeth. In addition, more than 65% indicated low confidence in evaluating new dental materials and products, interpreting new research findings and behavioural management of children. CONCLUSION: The present findings identified strengths and weaknesses of new dental graduates from a Middle Eastern university. The participants were confident in basic clinical skills but lower confidence was reported for complex dental procedures. The findings highlight the learning needs of new dental graduates and can serve to inform the undergraduate curriculum to enhance the preparedness of future cohorts of dental graduates.

Ten tips for effective use and quality assurance of multiple-choice questions in knowledge-based assessments.

Multiple-choice questions (MCQs) are the most popular type of items used in knowledge-based assessments in undergraduate and postgraduate healthcare education. MCQs allow assessment of candidates' knowledge on a broad range of knowledge-based learning outcomes in a single assessment. Single-best-answer (SBA) MCQs are the most versatile and commonly used format. Although writing MCQs may seem straight-forward, producing decent-quality MCQs is challenging and warrants a range of quality checks before an item is deemed suitable for inclusion in an assessment. Like all assessments, MCQ-based examinations must be aligned with the learning outcomes and learning opportunities provided to the students. This paper provides evidence-based guidance on the effective use of MCQs in student assessments, not only to make decisions regarding student progression but also to build an academic environment that promotes assessment as a driver for learning. Practical tips are provided to the readers to produce authentic MCQ items, along with appropriate pre- and post-assessment reviews, the use of standard setting and psychometric evaluation of assessments based on MCQs. Institutions need to develop an academic culture that fosters transparency, openness, equality and inclusivity. In line with contemporary educational principles, teamwork amongst teaching faculty, administrators and students is essential to establish effective learning and assessment practices.

ChatGPT-A double-edged sword for healthcare education? Implications for assessments of dental students.

INTRODUCTION: Open-source generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications are fast-transforming access to information and allow students to prepare assignments and offer quite accurate responses to a wide range of exam questions which are routinely used in assessments of students across the board including undergraduate dental students. This study aims to evaluate the performance of Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer (ChatGPT), a generative AI-based application, on a wide range of assessments used in contemporary healthcare education and discusses the implications for undergraduate dental education. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was an exploratory study investigating the accuracy of ChatGPT to attempt a range of recognised assessments in healthcare education curricula. A total of 50 independent items encompassing 50 different learning outcomes (n = 10 per item) were developed by the research team. These included 10 separate items based on each of the five commonly used question formats including multiple-choice questions (MCQs); short-answer questions (SAQs); short essay questions (SEQs); single true/false questions; and fill in the blanks items. Chat GPT was used to attempt each of these 50 questions. In addition, ChatGPT was used to generate reflective reports based on multisource feedback; research methodology; and critical appraisal of the literature. RESULTS: ChatGPT application provided accurate responses to majority of knowledge-based assessments based on MCQs, SAQs, SEQs, true/false and fill in the blanks items. However, it was only able to answer text-based questions and did not allow processing of questions based on images. Responses generated to written assignments were also satisfactory apart from those for critical appraisal of literature. Word count was the key limitation observed in outputs generated by the free version of ChatGPT. CONCLUSION: Notwithstanding their current limitations, generative AI-based applications have the potential to revolutionise virtual learning. Instead of treating it as a threat, healthcare educators need to adapt teaching and assessments in medical and dental education to the benefits of the learners while mitigating against dishonest use of AI-based technology.

Perceived confidence of dental students and new graduates in performing tooth extractions-An exploratory study.

INTRODUCTION: The ability to perform uncomplicated tooth extractions is a core clinical skill in undergraduate dental education. The aim of this study was to evaluate pre-extraction assessment skills of dental students and interns and explore their self-perceived confidence in performing these tooth extractions. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional survey investigated the self-perceived confidence to perform the extraction for a set of eight expert-rated cases. The participants were dental students at three different stages, that is, in Years 4 and 5 of the Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) programme and interns. The participants were asked to rate the difficulty level of each of the eight tooth extraction cases. The self-perceived confidence of the participants to perform extraction of each was also explored. Finally, the participants were asked to identify the main reason for the perceived lack of confidence. RESULTS: A total of 199 responded to the survey, yielding a response rate of 94.7%. The effect of grade of extraction (the expert rating of cases) and stage of education on difficulty ratings was assessed using a mixed three stage of education × 4-grade ANOVA, with response (Difficult = 1, Easy = 0) as the dependent variable. The results showed that there was a correlation between the stage of education and grade of extraction and affected the self-perceived confidence of the participants. Gender showed a significant impact with females categorizing significantly more cases as difficult. A three-way contingency table (counts of each confidence-level response by stage of education by expert rating of cases) suggests a statistically significant association between the three factors. Most participants identified limited clinical exposure as the main reason for their perceived lack of confidence. CONCLUSION: The findings of this study show that a majority of the participants were able to recognize tooth extraction cases which were beyond the scope of their training stage with females reporting a lower confidence. Increased clinical exposure to a wider range of tooth extraction cases with varying levels of difficulty may contribute to improving the self-confidence of undergraduate dental students and interns.

Synthesis and characterizations of conocarpus- and azadirachta-derived activated carbons as wastewater recycling material.

Water being the most important fluid supporting the life as well as industry is getting sparse and polluted day by day. Activated carbon (AC) can be utilized in various applications of significant environmental impact and sustainable living such as carbon dioxide sensing and capturing, air purification, and water recycling. However, in the wake of the recent corona pandemic which resulted in global lockdown and took the entire world by shock, a cost-effective and simple synthesis of such a useful material remains dire need of time. Therefore, this paper describes a simple and cost-effective synthesis of activated carbon (AC) of high porosity and surface area derived from the pruning of conocarpus and azadirachta trees. In reference to the study under consideration, alongside numerous others, a furnace was employed to synthesize activated carbon. However, our approach utilized a more conventional methodology wherein the environmental parameters were not optimized. In furnace-based procedures, factors such as temperature, pressure, and humidity are meticulously regulated, contrasting with the conventional methodologies where such parameters lack optimal control. Consequently, employing a furnace does not constitute a cost-effective approach for the physical activation of organic samples thus proving a furnace is not imperative for physical activation. The synthesis was carried out by physical activation in the form of carbonization followed by chemical activation with potassium hydroxide (KOH). The influence of activated carbon from each pruning over filtration of water containing industrial dye was investigated. Activation temperature and impregnation ratio of 600-800 °C and 1:5 were selected respectively. X-ray diffraction patterns (XRD) for all AC samples indicted the appearance of broad peaks at 2θ value of 20-30° which confirms the presence of carbon in the sample. The physical morphology arrangement by SEM analysis showed uneven arrangement of pores of conocarpus which indicated higher iodine number and hence higher adsorption capacity of 442.13 mg/g.

Efficacy and Safety of Radiofrequency Ablation Plus Stent Versus Stent-alone Treatments for Malignant Biliary Strictures: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Malignant biliary strictures (MBS) are very aggressive and cannot be diagnosed in the early stages due to their asymptomatic nature. Stenting the stricture area of the biliary tree is palliative treatment but has poor survival time. Radiofrequency ablation plus stent (RFA+S) have been recently used to improve the survival and stent patency time in patients with MBS. In this systematic review and meta-analysis, we tried to evaluate the efficacy and safety of radiofrequency ablation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Study search up to December 2021 was performed in different medical databases such as PubMed, Web of Science, and Cochrane library, etc. We selected eligible studies reporting survival time, stent patency time, and adverse events in patients with MBS. We compare the outcomes of RFA+S and stent-alone treatment groups. RESULTS: A total of 15 studies (6 randomized controlled trials and 9 observational studies) with 1815 patients were included for meta-analysis of which 701 patients were in RFA+S group and 1114 patients in the stent-alone group. Pooled mean difference of survival time was 2.88 months (95% CI: 1.78-3.97) and pooled mean difference of stent patency time was 2.11 months (95% CI: 0.91-3.30) and clinical success risk ratio was 1.05 (95% CI: 1.01-1.09). Risk ratios for adverse events are given; Bleeding 0.84 (95% CI: 0.34-2.11), abdominal pain 1.06 (95% CI: 0.79-1.40), pancreatitis 0.93 (95% CI: 0.43-2.01), cholangitis 1.07 (95% CI: 0.72-1.59), and stent dysfunction 0.87 (95% CI: 0.70-1.07). CONCLUSIONS: Radiofrequency ablation is involved in increased survival and stent patency time for MBS patients. With the help of better techniques, adverse events can be limited.

Enhancing learning experiences in pre-clinical restorative dentistry: the impact of virtual reality haptic simulators.

BACKGROUND: Utilization of Virtual Reality haptic simulation (VRHS) to aid in the training of various pre-clinical skills is of recent interest. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of VRHS in restorative dentistry on the learning experiences and perceptions of dental students. METHODS: An interventional study design was utilized to recruit third year students. All participants provided informed consents and were randomly divided into two groups. Group 1: Initially performed a Class I cavity preparation with the VRHS, followed by the same exercise using the phantom head/ acrylic typodont teeth in a conventional simulation environment (CSE). Group 2: Initially performed Class I preparations in a CSE, followed by the same exercise using VRHS. Both groups performed the exercises on a lower right first molar. To understand students' perception, an online questionnaire was circulated. Data analysis involved Chi-square tests, independent t-tests and Mann-Whitney U-tests using the R statistical environment package. RESULTS: A total of 23 dental students participated in this study. Although student's perceptions were similar in both groups, a strong agreement that VRHS training might be used to supplement standard pre-clinical training was noted. Advancements to the VRHS hardware and software are required to bridge the gap and provide a smooth transition to clinics. CONCLUSION: Novice dental students generally perceived VRHS as a useful tool for enhancing their manual dexterity. Dental institutions should endorse virtual reality technology with caution, ensuring a planned integration into the curriculum to optimize benefit. Feedback is pivotal to effective learning in simulation-based education, and the triangulation of feedback could serve as a powerful aid to maximize the learning experience.

In-the-Wild Affect Analysis of Children with ASD Using Heart Rate.

Recognizing the affective state of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in real-world settings poses challenges due to the varying head poses, illumination levels, occlusion and a lack of datasets annotated with emotions in in-the-wild scenarios. Understanding the emotional state of children with ASD is crucial for providing personalized interventions and support. Existing methods often rely on controlled lab environments, limiting their applicability to real-world scenarios. Hence, a framework that enables the recognition of affective states in children with ASD in uncontrolled settings is needed. This paper presents a framework for recognizing the affective state of children with ASD in an in-the-wild setting using heart rate (HR) information. More specifically, an algorithm is developed that can classify a participant's emotion as positive, negative, or neutral by analyzing the heart rate signal acquired from a smartwatch. The heart rate data are obtained in real time using a smartwatch application while the child learns to code a robot and interacts with an avatar. The avatar assists the child in developing communication skills and programming the robot. In this paper, we also present a semi-automated annotation technique based on facial expression recognition for the heart rate data. The HR signal is analyzed to extract features that capture the emotional state of the child. Additionally, in this paper, the performance of a raw HR-signal-based emotion classification algorithm is compared with a classification approach based on features extracted from HR signals using discrete wavelet transform (DWT). The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method achieves comparable performance to state-of-the-art HR-based emotion recognition techniques, despite being conducted in an uncontrolled setting rather than a controlled lab environment. The framework presented in this paper contributes to the real-world affect analysis of children with ASD using HR information. By enabling emotion recognition in uncontrolled settings, this approach has the potential to improve the monitoring and understanding of the emotional well-being of children with ASD in their daily lives.

Barriers and enablers for oral health promotion programs amongst primary healthcare stakeholders in Qatar - a qualitative investigation.

BACKGROUND: Oral health of preschool children remains a concern globally. Primary healthcare providers are in a vital position to support preventive oral care programmes. This study explored current practices, perception and barriers of primary health care professionals towards oral health promotion program of children in Qatar. METHODS: The qualitative research used focus group discussions and interviewed a total of 108 participants that were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Four major themes emerged and were analysed to explore contextual patterns within the data. RESULTS: Participants acknowledged the high prevalence of caries in children and identified the causes in the local context which included parental practices, poor dietary habits, impact of culture lack of oral health knowledge, limitations in the healthcare system, and negative role of the media. However, complex barriers were exposed, including lack of time and ownership, system coordination between organizations, and lack of policy. CONCLUSION: Health professionals and bureaucrats involved in decision-making held a positive attitude towards oral health prevention programs and were enthusiastic to initiate and support these programs.

Oral cancer knowledge, attitudes, and practices among senior dental students in Yemen: a multi-institution study.

BACKGROUND: The "Knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP)" approach is crucial in health system. Appreciating the current KAP status will reveal the extent of the efficiency of applied health strategies, and subsequently help to determine the appropriate health policy to be employed for improving the health indicators of a given disease/condition, including Oral Cancer (OC). This large-scale cross-sectional study aimed to assess knowledge, attitude, and practice on OC among senior dental students in Yemen. METHODS: A pre-validated online questionnaire was used for data collection. It consisted of a series of close-ended questions on knowledge, attitudes and practices related to OC. Yemeni dental students in clinical levels (4th and 5th years) from nine dental schools based in four major cities were invited to complete the survey. The SPSS Version 28.0 was used for data analysis. Differences by different grouping factors were assessed by Chi-squared and Mann Whitney-U tests, as appropriate. RESULTS: A total of 927 students completed the questionnaire: a response rate of 43%. While the majority identified smoking (93.8%), and smokeless tobacco (92.1%) as potential risk factors of OC, only 76.2% recognized sun exposure as a risk factor for lip cancer and only 50% were aware of old age as a risk factor of OC. Regarding clinical signs of OC, 84.1% reported that OC can present as non-healing ulcer, but only two thirds of the participants recognized that OC can present as a white and/or red lesion. With respect to practices, although 92.1% reported asking their patients regarding oral habits, only 78% reported they regularly carry out a soft tissue examination. Only 54.5% of the participants considered themselves to be well-trained to provide smoking cessation advice, and 21% were confident regarding their knowledge on OC. The 5th year students showed significantly better knowledge and practices than the 4th year students did (p < 0.01). CONCLUSION: The study suggests significant gaps in knowledge, attitudes, and practices of senior dental students in Yemen regarding OC. The findings also underscore the urgent need to improve OC teaching and training of undergraduate dental students, and to provide periodic well-structured continuing professional development activities for dental professionals.

Does problem-based learning facilitate enactment of learner agency in undergraduate dental curricula? A Q study.

INTRODUCTION: Addressing a literature gap on leaner agency in health profession education, this study explores students' perceptions on which aspects of a problem-based learning (PBL) environment cradle their leaner agency enactment. METHODS: Thirty-eight students from a newly established undergraduate dental medicine programme in Qatar participated in the study. Q methodology was adopted to collect and analyse data both qualitatively and quantitatively. A 40-statement Q-set was established based on a proposed conceptual framework of learner agency in PBL, including three dimensions-intrapersonal, behavioural and environmental. RESULTS: Q methodological factor analysis identified four significantly different student viewpoints, which underscored participants' enactment of learner agency addressing the intrapersonal, behavioural and environmental dimensions of the conceptual framework. Despite differences in opinion regarding sources of learner agency, the four student viewpoints unanimously underscore the importance of PBL facilitators' expertise to nurture and develop agency amongst undergraduate students. Post-sorting qualitative data further confirmed the quantitative analysis. Time constraints and workload were identified as the main challenges by the participants. CONCLUSIONS: This study explored enactment of learner agency as perceived by undergraduate dental students in a PBL curriculum. The findings of this study provide new insights into participants' subjective understanding of learner agency in a PBL curriculum in dentistry. Structured support is needed for students having no prior PBL experiences to develop their learner agency at both intrapersonal and behavioural (self-regulated learning) dimensions, and to ensure they interact with their learning environment proactively.

Online assessment platforms: What is on offer?

AIMS: Web-based digital assessment platforms offer several benefits for educational providers. The aims of this study were to evaluate digital assessment platforms suitable for design, delivery and quality assurance of assessments in dental education to facilitate informed choices by educational providers. METHODS: The study was based on an online cross-sectional survey. A questionnaire was designed to include relevant details of providers, types of assessments offered, post-assessment psychometrics, remote proctoring, integration with digital learning platforms faculty training, and indicative costs of services. Following a google search, 25 potential providers of digital assessment software were identified and contacted by email. RESULTS: Ten companies responded to the questionnaire. All providers, except one, reported extensive experience in delivering high-stake assessments for programs in dentistry, medicine and allied health professions. All companies confirmed availability of a wide variety of assessment formats and also offer remote proctoring either directly or through third parties. Indicative costs of different assessment platforms were also provided. CONCLUSION: This paper underscores the need for dental institutions to make informed decisions when choosing the most appropriate digital assessment platforms to suit their educational needs. It also provides a snapshot of services offered by commercial providers of assessment platforms. The Association for Dental Education in Europe can serve as a central hub to guide dental institutions on making informed choices for suitable assessment platforms to address their needs.

Development of self-regulation amongst dental students in problem-based learning curricula: A qualitative study.

AIMS: To explore the value of problem-based learning in the development of self-regulation amongst undergraduate dental students. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A qualitative approach using focus groups was used to explore the perceptions and experiences of the participants regarding the role of problem-based learning (PBL) in promoting self-regulation in undergraduate dental education. The study was carried out at a newly established dental institution in Qatar. Purposive sampling technique was used to recruit the participants. Invitations to potential participants were sent by e-mail through appropriate professional channels. All focus groups were transcribed verbatim, and data were imported into NVivo 12 and analysed thematically. RESULTS: A total of five focus groups were conducted with 37 participants which included 27 females and seven males from two different cohorts. Participants expressed their views on a range of issues related to the self-regulation in problem-based learning and also provided recommendations to enhance the learning experiences of students. PBL was perceived to be an appropriate and effective strategy to support student autonomy in construction of knowledge and developing problem-solving and interpersonal skills. However, the workload of the students can impact adversely on their motivation and time management skills. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides useful insights into the concept of self-regulation in problem-based learning environments as perceived by the stakeholders at a newly established dental institution. The findings of this study may offer clarity on how problem-based learning can be best utilised to promote self-regulation in undergraduate dental education.

How does diabetes mellitus impact on the prognosis of dental implants?

DATA SOURCES: Web of Science, Embase, PubMed and Cochrane Library databases were searched for publications up to August 2021. STUDY SELECTION: The study noted clear inclusion and exclusion criteria. Search terms were provided; only observational studies were considered. DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS: A total of 122 studies were identified through the search strategy. Following deduplication, two reviewers conducted the screening. RESULTS: A total of 21 observational studies were included, involving cohort, case-control, and cross-sectional study designs. A meta-analysis identified increased risk of peri-implantitis in patients with diabetes mellitus and in smokers when compared to non-diabetic subjects and non-smokers. No significant association was found between poor plaque control or periodontal history and peri-implantitis. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with diabetes mellitus appear to have a higher risk of peri-implantitis.

E-cigarette side effects in otolaryngology: unveiling the vape mirage.

DATA SOURCES: The following databases were searched for publications up to May 2020: Web of Science, EMBASE, CENTRAL, Medline and CINAHL. Additionally, previously published reviews were hand searched. STUDY SELECTION: Clinical studies conducted in English language were considered, encompassing cohorts of more than four vaping individuals who have encountered inadvertent side effects. Both adult and paediatric populations were included. In vitro, animal studies and systematic or literature reviews were excluded from the analysis. DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS: Two independent reviewers screened 1125 studies following deduplication. Two-hundred and eight full-text studies were assessed for eligibility. RESULTS: Thirty-two studies met the inclusion criteria. Diverse study designs were included, comprising of cross-sectional, randomised controlled trials, case-control studies, cohort studies, case series investigations and non-randomised trials. Of note, four studies focused on paediatric patients. Most reported side effects were cough, throat and mouth irritation and intra-oral lesions. CONCLUSIONS: While the direct side effects of e-cigarettes are well-documented, the long-term effects remain uncertain.

Dupilumab-induced Acute Generalized Exanthematous Pustulosis in a 17-year-old Female Chinese Patient with Atopic Dermatitis.

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