The dental esthetic screening index: A new tool for assessment of dento-facial esthetics in restorative dentistry.

OBJECTIVES: There is a lack of comprehensive indexes, which can measure conditions or changes in dento-facial esthetics before and after treatment. Therefore, the 12-item Dental Esthetic Screening Index (DESI) was developed and validated. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Reliability was tested by five dental professionals, who evaluated 30 standardized patient photographs baseline and after 14 days. Clinical validation was done on 52 patients before and after restorative treatment. For subjective assessment, patients completed a validated questionnaire before and after treatment. Statistical analysis included inter and intrarater reliability, Wilcoxon test and linear regression analysis. RESULTS: The single item analysis identified two weak extraoral items (κ = 0.15; κ = -0.05), that were removed from the DESI. After this modification, both inter- (κ = 0.83-0.86) and intrarater reliability (ICC1-5 = 0.75-0.86) were in excellent to good agreement. In the clinical validation, the DESI was significantly lower after restorative treatment (P < .0001). The patients' perception questionnaires showed significant improvement after restorative therapy (P < .0001). A correlation of the DESI and the results of patients' perception questionnaires could be assumed (P < .0001; R2 = 0.32). CONCLUSIONS: The DESI was found to be a reliable and valid instrument for the quantitative assessment of dento-facial esthetics. It correlated well with the subjective assessment of the patients. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: This comprehensive index would allow for objective quantification of clinical situations, for reliable baseline and outcome assessment in esthetic dentistry. As patients' esthetic feelings and sensations are subjective, this objective index is also proven to be congruent to patients' individual subjective assessment of dento-facial esthetics.

Clinical comparison of metal ceramic resin-bonded fixed dental prostheses with a conventional and a mixed retainer design.

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM: Little is known about the clinical performance of fixed dental prostheses that rigidly connect adhesive retainers and crowns. PURPOSE: The purpose of this retrospective analysis was to assess and compare the clinical performance of resin-bonded fixed dental prostheses with a conventional and a mixed retainer design. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Included as participants were all patients of the hospital since 2004 with regular clinical follow-up who were treated with 3-unit or 4-unit metal ceramic resin-bonded fixed dental prostheses with a conventional 2-adhesive retainer design (conventional group) or with a mixed type combining an adhesive retainer with a crown or a partial crown retainer (mixed group). The analysis included 84 participants with a total of 57 (64%) prostheses in the conventional group and 32 (36%) prostheses in the mixed group. Treatment and data collection were standardized. Cumulative survival without failure (defined as a restoration in need of replacement), chipping, and debonding were estimated by the Kaplan-Meier method and compared for the groups (log-rank test) (α=.05). RESULTS: During a mean observation period of 4.1 years (SD, 2.5 years; minimum, 0.4 years; maximum, 9.4 years), 12 complications occurred in 10 restorations. Defects of the ceramic veneer (n=6) were observed most frequently. The estimated 5-year failure-free survival rate was 97.4% (standard error, .025) in the conventional group and 95% (standard error, .049) in the mixed group (log-rank, P=.32). The 5-year cumulative survival rate without chipping was 90.7% (standard error, .064) for the conventional group and 93.8% (standard error, .061) for the mixed group (log-rank, P=.44). The 5-year cumulative survival rate without debonding was 95.1% (standard error, .034) for the conventional group and 91.5% (standard error, .058) for the mixed group (log-rank, P=.54). CONCLUSIONS: Limited by a small sample size and a short follow-up period, the findings of this retrospective analysis indicate that the clinical performance, in terms of survival and the incidence of complications, is comparable for conventional resin-bonded fixed dental prostheses and those that rigidly connect an adhesive wing and a partial or complete crown. Acceptable 5-year survival and complication rates imply that the medium-term prognosis for resin-bonded restorations with a retentive preparation design is comparable with that for conventional fixed dental prostheses.

Bruxism in prospective studies of veneered zirconia restorations-a systematic review.

PURPOSE: The objectives of this work were to systematically review the effect of bruxism on the survival of zirconia restorations on teeth and to assess the prevalence of nocturnal masseter muscle activity in a clinical sample. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A Medline search was performed independently and in triplicate using the term "zirconia" and activating the filter "clinical trial." Furthermore, three other electronic databases were searched using the same term. Only papers published in English on prospective studies of veneered zirconia frameworks on teeth were included. To estimate the prevalence of sleep bruxism in clinical settings, subjects with no clinical signs of bruxism and who did not report grinding and/or clenching were examined by use of a disposable electromyographic device. RESULTS: The initial search resulted in 107 papers, of which 22 were included in the analysis. Bruxers were excluded in 20 of these articles. In 1 study bruxers were not excluded, and 1 study did not provide information regarding this issue. The methods used to identify bruxers were heterogeneous/not described, and no study used reliable, valid methods. Of 33 subjects without clinical signs of bruxism, nocturnal muscle activity exceeded predefined muscle activity for 63.8% of the subjects. CONCLUSION: There is a lack of information about the effect of bruxism on the incidence of technical failure of veneered zirconia restorations because all available studies failed to use suitable instruments for diagnosis of bruxism. Nocturnal muscle activity without clinical symptoms/report of bruxism was observed for a relevant number of patients.