Chairside technique for addition of teeth to an acrylic partial denture. A clinical report.

This article describes a chairside technique of addition of teeth to a patient's existing acrylic partial denture at the extraction appointment without the need for dental laboratory intervention. This maintains aesthetics, function, phonation, biologic integrity, patient confidence, and psychological well-being. An immediate denture is any fixed or removable dental prosthesis fabricated for placement immediately after the removal of a natural tooth/teeth [1,2]. Immediate dentures have many advantages over conventional dentures including conservation of patient's integrity, aesthetics, functionality, soft tissue support and occlusion [2-4]. Immediate dentures require several visits with associated costs and the patient has a period of adjustment to the new prosthesis. This clinical report describes a simple and fast technique of chairside immediate tooth addition to an existing denture avoiding some of these issues.

Promoting openness to autism amongst dental care professional students.

INTRODUCTION: Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is a lifelong condition affecting communication and social interaction, characterised by repetitive or repeated patterns of behaviour. People with ASD experience poor systemic and oral health. They face reduced access to dental care related to provider barriers associated with lack of understanding of ASD, lack of training and a consequent reluctance to treat people with ASD. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The effectiveness of training given by a person with autism to student dental care professionals was evaluated by measuring change in 62 students' openness to autism scale scores and confidence treating a person with autism. These students included third year dental students and second year dental nursing and hygiene students. This cohort was recruited as part of their curriculum and opted in for inclusion in the study. Data were analysed using SPSS®. RESULTS: An increase in openness scale scores of 7.6% (p < .05) and in confidence of 4.9% (p < .05) between pre- and post-training was observed. Openness scale score predicted level of confidence at baseline (OR = 0.21 (95% CI = 0.02-0.39)). CONCLUSION: An educational intervention delivered by a person with autism promoted modest increases in openness towards autism and confidence amongst dental care pre-service professionals. Whilst the results suggest that peer-led dental care professional teaching by people with autism may be beneficial, more research is needed.