Emotional Intelligence, Perceived Stress and Life Quality Assessment Among Dental Students.

Background: The capacity to grasp and recognize one's own and human feelings, use cognitive awareness to control actions and behavior, and modify moods in response to difficult situations is known as emotional intelligence (EI). Perceived stress has been linked to higher levels of depression among healthcare students. This study set out to assess EI, perceived stress (PS), and life quality assessment (LQA) among dental undergraduates and to ascertain how these factors are linked to one another. Materials and Methods: The self-reported cross-sectional research was organized among preclinical and clinical years of dental students to examine their emotional intelligence and stress-coping capacity. About 146 students participated in the study, with ages ranging from 19 to 25, irrespective of gender. The students were given the Schutte Emotional Intelligence and Perceived Stress Scale tools (PSS10) by Cohen, and with World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL-BREF) tool examined the characteristics that contribute to life quality among students. Results: The study included 146 individuals, 38 males (26.02%) and 108 females (73.97%), with an unresponsiveness rate of 2.66%. The correlation revealed statistically high significance among emotional intelligence and perceived stress (P = 0.000), perceived stress and life quality (P = 0.02), and emotional intelligence and life quality (P = 0.008). The statistical analysis of the influence of EI, PS, and LQA on academic year-wise analysis determined non-significant (P > 0.05). Conclusion: Due to the time constraints of their job, dentistry training may be highly stressful, yet regular evaluations of student performance and the accompanying factors would help us to understand how students behave in challenging circumstances.

Prevalence of canine impaction in the western province of Saudi Arabia: A cross-sectional survey.

BACKGROUND/AIM: Canine tooth impaction could have a negative influence on the stomatognathic system and could make it difficult for clinicians to manage malocclusions. The aim of this retrospective study was to investigate the prevalence of canine impaction, which could be a cause of malocclusion, in the population in the western province of Saudi Arabia. METHODS: A retrospective analysis of digital orthopantomograms (OPGs) of 400 patients aged 12-40 years, who are citizens of Saudi Arabia residing in the western province and who presented for treatment at the dental clinics of Batterjee Medical College, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia were included. The OPGs and dental records of these patients were reviewed for canine impaction and were categorized based on age, gender, and type of impaction. RESULTS: The prevalence of patients that exhibited canine impaction was found to be 4%. Males had a significantly higher percentage of prevalence than females (P < 0.016), and impaction was significantly higher among patients aged below 18 years (P < 0.001). Moreover, the most commonly observed impaction was mandibular canine impaction (87.5%). CONCLUSIONS: Prevention of malocclusion and maintenance of a normal dentition (better aesthetics and chewing) necessitates early detection of impacted canines.

Comparison of Effectiveness of Corticotomy-assisted Accelerated Orthodontic Treatment and Conventional Orthodontic Treatment: A Systematic Review.

AIM: To systematically review the comparative differences in the performance and timeliness of conventional orthodontic treatment with that of corticotomy-assisted accelerated orthodontic treatment. DATA SOURCES: The electronic databases PubMed and Google Scholar were searched from January 2007 to January 2018 in English, with manual searches of reference lists and gray literature. Thirty-six articles were included in the study with inclusion criteria as prospective clinical studies of patients treated with fixed conventional appliance and the intervention was the corticotomy-assisted accelerated orthodontic treatment method. STUDY SELECTION: Two reviewers assessed independently the eligibility of the included articles. One investigator abstracted study design information, intervention details, and harms data from all included studies into a standardized evidence table. The accuracy of these data was checked by the second investigator. We resolved any disagreements through discussion with other authors. RESULTS: Different aspects of the corticotomy-assisted accelerated orthodontics treatment method were investigated including risk factors, advantages, and disadvantages as compared to that of conventional orthodontic treatment. CONCLUSION: There is limited available evidence about effectiveness of corticotomy-assisted accelerated orthodontics. Although the current review indicates that the corticotomy-assisted accelerated orthodontic treatment method can fasten the treatment duration by 2.2-3 folds compared to conventional orthodontic treatment, furthermore, the level of evidence needs well-conducted prospective research with big sample size to draw valid conclusions. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Orthodontic treatment is a time-consuming process and due to noncompliance of patients, research has found different methods to accelerate the treatment, thus reducing the total treatment duration. Use of accelerated orthodontic techniques is expected to help clinicians in better treatment decisions for noncompliant patients.

Empathy of dental students towards children after behaviour guidance lectures and clinical experience.

INTRODUCTION: The empathetic behaviour of dentists is essential for perfect patient care. Because the behaviour of child patients in a dental clinic differs from that exhibited by the adults, knowing of empathy of dental students towards the child in the dental clinic is an important concern. METHODS: We distributed a modified form of the Health Professions Student version (HPS-version) of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy (JSE) to dental students in two rounds: (R1) before and (R2) after introducing behaviour guidance subcourse and exposure to 3 clinical experiences with children to measure changes in empathy of dental students towards child patients. The modifications include replacing the "patient" words with "child patients" and translation into Arabic. We checked the internal consistency of the modified form of HPS-version by Cronbach's coefficient alpha test. The significance level was set at 0.05 for all statistical analyses. RESULTS: Out of eighty-one, sixty-five dental students completed the survey and attended a behaviour guidance course and three clinical sessions. The questionnaire showed accepted reliability. There was a significant decrease in the empathy of dental students in R2 than R1 (P < .05). The level of empathy for males was less than female students in both rounds (P < .05). CONCLUSIONS: The clinical interaction of children by dental students inhibits their empathy towards child patients, and a specific training course is needed to improve dental students' empathy towards children since learning behaviour guidance may not sufficient.

Effectiveness of the American Board of Orthodontics Discrepancy Index in predicting Treatment Time.

AIM: This study was aimed to explore the effect of pretreatment severity of malocclusion on the duration of the treatment using The American Board of Orthodontics discrepancy index (ABO-DI). MATERIALS AND METHODS: This clinical retrospective study consisted of orthodontics records of 37 patients who were treated with comprehensive fixed orthodontic appliance from 2011 to 2013. The sample of the study was collected so as to exclude, to the maximum possible, the patient cooperation variability by reviewing all patient chart entries. The DI measurements were used to gather the information of the pretreatment and relate it to the time duration of the treatment. Statistical analyses were performed using the chi-square test and Pearson correlation coefficient. RESULTS: The average treatment time was 24.5 months. The DI scores mean for class I and II was 14.30 and 20.15 respectively. Age and sex did not significantly influence the treatment duration (p > 0.05). CONCLUSION: The results of this study showed that the ABO-DI could be a useful tool to predict orthodontic treatment time. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: The ABO-DI can significantly aid in orthodontic treatment time planning.

Clinical and Radiographic Evaluation of Median Lingualized Occlusion in Implant Retained Mandibular Complete Overdenture.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to evaluate clinically and radiographically median lingualized occlusion in implant-retained mandibular complete overdenture. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Ten completely edentulous male patients were participated in this study. Each patient received two implants in the intraforaminal area of the edentulous mandible that were left unloaded for 4 months. Patients were received conventional maxillary complete denture and implant mandibular overdenture with ball and socket attachment. The posterior teeth were set according to median lingualized occlusion scheme. All patients were evaluated clinically and radiographically immediately after denture insertion, 6 and 12 months of overdenture insertion. RESULTS: The results revealed significant differences in probing depth, gingival index, plaque index, and marginal bone height between the different follow-up periods. With the limitation of this study, and according to the results of the mean marginal bone loss and the other peri-implant parameters after 1 year of loading. CONCLUSION: The implant retained overdenture with the median lingualized occlusal scheme may be recognized as being acceptable according to the general implant success rates and criteria.