Relationship Between Mental Health and Death Anxiety During COVID-19 Pandemic in Dental Staff and Students: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Objective: We aimed to determine the mental health and death anxiety among dental staff and students in school of dentistry during COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: It was a cross-sectional study among students (n = 300) and staff (n = 60) in School of dentistry in Ahvaz University of Medical Sciences during 2020. The instruments were a demographic questionnaire, Death Anxiety Scale, and Kessler Questionnaire. Data was analyze by using SPSS version 22, in all tests, the significance level was set at <0.05. Results: The mean age of dental students and personnel was 23.96 and 40.08 years, respectively. The mean scores of death anxiety were higher in dental staff (8.53) than students (6.02) and the mean scores of mental health status were higher in students (14.78) than personnel (9.18). This indicates that death anxiety was higher in Dental staff, while students were in better mental health status. The correlation coefficient between death anxiety and mental health status was 0.366 among students (p < 0.001), while it was 0.429 among dental staff (p < 0.001), showing a medium relationship between death anxiety and mental health in both groups. Conclusion: The overall findings represent a significant but contradictory relationship between mental health status and death anxiety among dental staff and students during the prevalence of COVID-19 pandemic. This suggests the impact of confounding factors in this area, which can be studied by future researchers and policy makers to design health promotion interventions.

Are there any relationships between personality type, salivary total antioxidant level and academic stress?

BACKGROUND: Stress is one of the most important determinants of total antioxidant capacity (TAC). OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to assess alterations in salivary TAC following academic stress according to the personality type. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This descriptive study evaluated 53 dental students at Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran, who were divided into type A (n = 25) and type B (n = 28) personality groups using the Bortner questionnaire. Saliva samples were collected during the 1st week of the semester (a low-stress period) and during the 1st week of the final exams (a high-stress period). Salivary TAC was measured using a specific kit. The data was analyzed using the repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA), the analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), the χ2 tests, the independent t tests, and the Bonferroni adjustments. RESULTS: Overall, salivary TAC in the high-stress period was significantly lower than that in the low-stress period (0.27 vs 0.31 mM) (p = 0.016). The comparison of salivary TAC between the type A and type B personality groups in the low-stress period showed no significant difference (p = 0.450). During the highstress period, a reduction in salivary TAC was recorded in both groups, which was borderline significant in the type A personality group (p = 0.050), but non-significant in the type B personality group (p = 0.140). The comparison of salivary TAC between the type A and B personality groups in the high-stress period also revealed no significant difference (p = 0.780). CONCLUSIONS: Academic stress can decrease salivary TAC, and the personality type has no significant effect on this relationship.

Aphthous Stomatitis as an Uninvited Guest after Dental Implant Surgery: A Case Series.

Objectives - Aphthous stomatitis is one of the most common ulcerative lesions in the oral cavity. The aim of this study was to report the characteristics of patients with aphthous stomatitis after dental implantation. Patients and Method - The study included 14 patients who were diagnosed with aphthous stomatitis. The subjects were analyzed with the respect to age, sex, patient's general health status, type, number, location, and duration of the ulcers and the number of dental implants. Results - Of the 14 cases, 64.3% were female and 35.7% were male. The mean age of patients was 57.7. In terms of general health status, 64.3% of patients did not have a remarkable disease; however, 14.3%, 14.3%, and 7.1% of cases had diabetes, hypothyroidism, and cardiac disease, respectively. The majority of the lesions have been presented as minor type (85.7%) and the mean number of the ulcers was 2.5. Labial mucosa has been affected more frequently (71.4%), followed by tongue and floor of the mouth. The most lesions (42.8%) were occurred one day after dental implant surgery. The mean number of dental implants was 3.1. Conclusion - Presence of apthous ulcers should be considered by dentists as a potential postoperative complication of dental implantation.

Formulation of a Jasmine Grandiflorum containing mucoadhesive and evaluation of its healing effect on oral biopsy ulcers.

OBJECTIVES: The present research aimed to explore the effect of a mucoadhesive containing Jasminum grandiflorum leaves on the process of oral wound healing in animal samples. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The present double-blinded research was conducted on animals. To this aim, 28 rats were randomly selected and assigned to groups of control and experiment. The lesion was created by punch no. 3 in the midline of the mandibular labial mucosa of all mice. Each group received either a medicine or a placebo exclusively coded. The extent of contraction and wound healing was clinically assessed. To compare the two research groups, chi-squared test, repeated-measure ANOVA, and Mann-Whitney U test were run. SPSS software was used to do the statistical analyses. RESULTS: Statistically significant differences were found between the percentage of wound contraction on the 3rd day (40.91% vs. 16.5%, p = 0.04) and the 7th day (92.9% vs. 69.2%, p = 0.05), wound recovery (57.1% vs. 21.4%, p = 0.05) and degree of inflammation on the 7th day (p = 0.00), type (p = 0.04) and thickness of epithelium (p = 0.00) and type of connective tissue (p = 0.00) on the 14th day. CONCLUSION: Investigations showed that the drug was more effective than the placebo in accelerating wound healing in clinical and histopathological terms. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Accelerating wound healing in dental treatments and oral ulcers can also affect the quality of life of individuals.

Intraosseous migration of second premolar below the inferior alveolar nerve canal: Case report.

Migration is a kind of eruption abnormality where a tooth grows far from its original site of development. Anomalies in dental eruptions are referred to as ectopia, which might be encountered in several regions around the oral cavity. The incidence of mandibular second premolar impaction has been estimated to be 2.1-2.7%. The frequency of its intraosseous distal migration is 0.25%. We report a case of extremely distally intraosseous migration of mandibular second premolar, which was found in a routine radiography. A 28-year-old woman who attended a dental clinic to treat teeth caries was noticed to have her lower second premolar located horizontally in the homolateral mandibular angle below the inferior alveolar nerve canal on a panoramic view. As the patient was asymptomatic, she was advised to take follow-up radiographs to rule out any cystic/neoplastic changes. Taking a panoramic radiograph in patients with missing mandibular premolars should be considered, because in rare cases migration or transmigration of these teeth may happen.