Preference for Comprehensive Dental Treatment under General Anesthesia among Parents with Previous Experience: A Cross-Sectional Study.

This study aims to assess whether parents of children who previously received comprehensive dental treatment under general anesthesia (GA) would prefer comprehensive dental treatment under GA over regular dental care if any of their other children required comprehensive dental treatment. In this cross-sectional study, parents of children who met the inclusion criteria were interviewed by a trained pediatric resident about parental-related factors as well as their satisfaction with their previous GA experience. Also, the factors related to the previously treated child were obtained from dental records. Statistical analysis was carried out, and the p value was set to 0.05. A total number of 306 parents were included. Although most parents, 293 (95.8%), showed satisfaction with the previous GA, 170 (58%) of the satisfied parents preferred regular care. Parents of children who were previously treated under GA for medical-related reasons (p = 0.018), fathers working in a governmental sector (p = 0.021), and families with low-average monthly income (p = 0.017) significantly preferred regular care. In conclusion, most parents were satisfied with the previous GA experience. Family income, fathers' occupation, and medical-related factors can influence parental preference for comprehensive dental treatment under general anesthesia if any of their other children require comprehensive dental treatment.

Early prevention of childhood caries with maternal xylitol consumption.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of maternal xylitol consumption on children's salivary mutans streptococci (MS) level, caries activity, and plaque accumulation in contrast with maternal fluoride varnish in a group of mother-child pairs. METHODS: In this randomized controlled trial, the study subjects were 60 mother-child pairs recruited from the pediatric dentistry clinic and the hospital well baby clinic at King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The sample was recruited on the basis of maternal high salivary MS levels, and a child aged 10-36 months. The subjects were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. Mothers in the experimental group chewed xylitol gum, 1.8 gram (66% xylitol by weight), 3 times/day for 3 months. Mothers in the control group received fluoride varnish. Both groups received oral hygiene instructions, dietary counseling, and restorative treatment. Children were examined after 6, 12, and 24 months from the initiation of the study to evaluate salivary MS levels, caries, and plaque accumulation. RESULTS: There was an increase in MS levels in the experimental and control children at 24 months, which was non-significant in the experimental group, and significantly higher in the control group when compared with the baseline (p=0.008). The decayed, missing, filled scores of the children in the experimental group showed no change after 24 months, contrary to the controls that showed a significant increase (p=0.001). Plaque scores revealed no differences over time or between the 2 groups. CONCLUSION: Compared with fluoride varnish, maternal xylitol consumption provided preventive outcomes on salivary MS and caries levels in children.

Effects of xylitol on salivary mutans streptococcus, plaque level, and caries activity in a group of Saudi mother-child pairs. An 18-month clinical trial.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the effect of xylitol on salivary mutans streptococcus (MS), plaque level, and caries activity in a group of Saudi mother-child pairs. METHODS: A clinical trial of 60 mother-child pairs with high MS levels attending at King Abdulaziz University clinics were randomly grouped into experimental (received xylitol) and control (received fluoride varnish) groups (30 pairs each). The study was conducted from February 2009 to July 2010 for 18 months period. At 18 months, the sample dropped to 21 (experimental) and 13 pairs (control). Xylitol gum were given to mother and chewable tablets were given to children 3 times a day for a period of 3 months. Both groups received oral hygiene instructions, dietary counseling, and restorative treatment and examined to assess caries, plaque and MS levels at 6, 12, and 18 months. RESULTS: The number of mother-child pairs with high MS level in the experimental group decreased significantly at 18 months compared to baseline (p=0.001, p=0.000). A statistically significant difference in plaque level was found between the experimental and control groups at 6 and 12 month in children (p=0.000, p=0.006), while in mother, a significant decrease was recorded in the experimental group only at 18 month compared to baseline. Control group showed statistical significant increase in caries throughout the study period (p=0.040, p=0.040). CONCLUSION: The use of xylitol chewing gum by mother and chewable tablets by children, showed significant reduction of MS count, plaque score as well as caries experience.

Impact of maternal xylitol consumption on mutans streptococci, plaque and caries levels in children.

AIM: The present study was designed to determine whether maternal xylitol consumption through regular chewing of xylitol gums can affect the salivary mutans streptococci (MS), dental caries, and dental plaque levels of their children. METHOD: Study sample included 60 mother and child pairs with high salivary mutans streptococcus (MS) levels. Samples were randomly divided into experimental group (30 pairs) and control group (30 pairs). Mothers in the experimental group received xylitol chewing gum treatment three times/day for three months, whereas the controls received fluoride varnish. Both groups received oral hygiene instructions, dietary counseling and restorative treatment. All children were examined after 6, 12 and 18 months from the initiation of the study to assess caries, plaque and salivary mutans streptococcus (MS) levels. RESULTS: Showed that at 18 month the percent of children with high streptococcus levels in the control significantly increased when compared to the increase in the experimental group. Throughout the study, dmft scores of experimental children showed marginal non significant increase compared to controls that showed higher scores. Plaque scores revealed statistically non significant decrease among both groups. CONCLUSIONS: Maternal xylitol consumption provided better preventive outcomes on salivary (MS) levels compared to fluoride varnish treatments.

Effect of xylitol on dental caries and salivary Streptococcus mutans levels among a group of mother-child pairs.

UNLABELLED: Recent researches have focused on xylitol as convenient and effective method to inhibit cariogenic bacteria. The purpose of the present study is to assess the effect of xylitol on plaque accumulation, caries activity and salivary Streptococcus Mutans in a group of Saudi mother-child pairs. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study sample included 60 mother and child pairs selected on the basis of having high salivary streptococcus mutans levels. The study sample was randomly divided into experimental group (30 pairs) and control group (30 pairs). The experimental group was given xylitol treatment and the controls received fluoride varnish. Both groups were examined to assess caries, plaque and salivary streptococcus mutans levels. Xylitol treatment in the form of chewing gum for mothers and tablets for children was consumed three times/day for three months. All subjects received oral hygiene instructions, dietary counseling and restorative treatment. The results showed that the number of mothers and children with high streptococcus levels in the experimental group decreased to a statistically significant level at the end of the three month period, similarly, the control mothers showed the same trend. A statistically significant decrease in plaque scores was evident only among the children S experimental group. The caries level of children and mothers showed no statistically significant differences between the experimental and control groups. The factors which significantly affected the streptococcus mutans count in children after three months were the child' dmft at baseline the preventive method used and the mother'salivary streptococcus mutans level.

Caries experience in asthmatic children: a review of literature.

AIM: This review explores the discriminating factors involved for increased caries experience in asthmatic children. BACKGROUND: Dental caries is the single most common chronic disease of childhood. Children with chronic medical conditions are considered high caries risk. Asthma is one of the most common chronic medical conditions in childhood. MATERIAL: 27 studies examined the asthma-caries causative relationship. Most of them were cross sectional studies; only 5 longitudinal studies were reported. In the literature, there is a lack of consensus regarding the relationship between dental caries and asthma in a child population. CONCLUSION: Despite the fact that some relatively recent studies have provided little evidence for an asthma-caries causative relationship, the majority and the most recent reports have concluded that the individualistic nature of asthmatic condition, through either its disease status or its pharmacotherapy (diferent combinations of medicaments), or attempts to alleviate the condition's physiologic sequelea, carries several factors for an increased caries risk.

Postoperative complications of pediatric dental general anesthesia procedure provided in Jeddah hospitals, Saudi Arabia.

BACKGROUND: Review of post-operative morbidity reports for pediatric dental care under general anesthesia (GA) show great variations. Until now, no morbidity data has been available to estimate the safety of pediatric patients under GA for dental rehabilitation in Saudi Arabia. The purposes of this study were to (1) investigate post-operative complications associated with dental care under GA and (2) correlate morbidity reports with patient's characteristics, dental procedures, and hospital protocol. METHODS: Study sample included 90 children attending GA for dental treatment at major governmental hospitals in Jeddah. Data were collected from every patient on three occasions, intra-operatively at the operating room, and post-operatively via phone calls in the first and third days after operation. RESULTS: Results showed that 99% of the children had one or more complaints in the first day in contrast to only 33% in the third day. Inability to eat (86%), sleepiness (71%), and pain (48%) were the most common complaints in the first day, followed by bleeding (40%), drowsiness (39%), sore throat (34%), vomiting (26%), psychological changes (24%), fever (21%), cough (12%), and nausea (8%). A great significant complaints reduction was reported by the third post-operative day. Age, gender, admission type of the patients and GA duration were the factors that showed a significant relationship with post-operative complaints. CONCLUSION: Post-operative morbidity was common, but mostly of mild severity and limited to the first day. Hospital staff efforts should be directed to control commonly reported postoperative complaints.

Odontoblast cells immortalized by telomerase produce mineralized dentin-like tissue both in vitro and in vivo.

The formation of dentin provides one well accepted paradigm for studying mineralized tissue formation. For the assembly of dentin, several cellular signaling pathways cooperate to provide neural crest-derived mesenchymal cells with positional information. Further, "cross-talk" between signaling pathways from the mesenchymal derived odontoblast cells and the epithelially derived ameloblasts during development is responsible for the formation of functional odontoblasts. These intercellular signals are tightly regulated, both temporally and spatially. When isolated from the developing tooth germ, odontoblasts quickly lose their potential to maintain the odontoblast-specific phenotype. Therefore, generation of an odontoblast cell line would be a valuable reproducible tool for studying the modulatory effects involved in odontoblast differentiation as well as the molecular events involved in mineralized dentin formation. In this study an immortalized odontoblast cell line, which has the required biochemical machinery to produce mineralized tissue in vitro, has been generated. These cells were implanted into animal models to determine their in vivo effects on dentin formation. After implantation, we observed a multistep, programmed cascade of gene expression in the exogenous odontoblasts as the dentin formed de novo. Some of the genes expressed include the dentin matrix proteins 1, 2, and 3, which are extracellular matrix molecules responsible for the ultimate formation of mineralized dentin. The biological response was also examined by histology and radiography and confirmed for mineral deposition by von Kossa staining. Thus, a transformed odontoblast cell line was created with high proliferative capacity that might ultimately be used for the regeneration and repair of dentin in vivo.