Perception of Special Needs Dentistry education and practice amongst Australian dental auxiliary students.

INTRODUCTION: The role of dental auxiliaries in collaborative care of patients with special needs is compelling. This study was undertaken to investigate the perceptions of Special Needs Dentistry (SND) education and practice amongst students enrolled in Australian programmes in dental auxiliary, namely dental hygiene, dental therapy and oral health therapy (DH/DT/OHT). MATERIALS AND METHODS: All Australian institutions offering DH/DT/OHT programmes (n = 14) were invited to participate in a self-administered questionnaire survey, conducted online, involving students across all academic years. Twelve institutions agreed to participate, but only five institutions were included in the final analysis, with a student response rate of 31.1%. Answers to open-ended questions were coded and grouped for measurement of frequencies. Quantitative data were analysed via chi-squared and Fisher's exact tests (significance taken as P < .05). RESULTS: The majority of students could not define SND (87.0%) were not aware of the existence of this specialty (53.5%) and did not have clinical experience treating patients with special needs (68.9%). Nevertheless, they felt comfortable and positive about treating these patients independently. Most agreed that they should receive clinical and didactic education in SND, with many of them expressing interest in pursuing a specialty training in this field. CONCLUSION: DH/DT/OHT students' comfort levels, positive attitudes and supportiveness for SND suggested positive implications for these practitioners to partake in multidisciplinary management of patients with special needs, thus indicating the need for standardised training requirements and practice guidelines in this area of care.

A locus for primary ciliary dyskinesia maps to chromosome 19q.

Primary ciliary dyskinesia is an autosomal recessive condition characterised by chronic sinusitis, bronchiectasis, and subfertility. Situs inversus occurs in 50% of cases (Kartagener syndrome). It has an estimated incidence of 1 in 20 000 live births. The clinical phenotype is caused by defective ciliary function associated with a range of ultrastructural abnormalities including absent dynein arms, absent radial spokes, and disturbed ciliary orientation. The molecular genetic basis is unknown. A genome scan was performed in five Arabic families. Using GENEHUNTER, a maximal multipoint lod score (HLOD) of 4.4 was obtained on chromosome 19q13.3-qter at alpha (proportion of linked families) = 0.7. A 15 cM critical region is defined by recombinations at D19S572 and D19S218. These data provide significant evidence for a PCD locus on chromosome 19q and confirm locus heterogeneity.

Effect of dilatation of peptic esophageal strictures on gastroesophageal reflux, dysphagia, and stricture diameter.

In 10 patients with peptic esophageal stricture the effect of esophageal dilatation on intraesophageal pH, stricture diameter, and dysphagia has been studied. Percentage of time during which intraesophageal pH was less than 4 and the number of reflux episodes per hour did not change significantly. Stricture diameter increased slightly, but consistently, from 7.0 +/- 0.5 mm to 9.1 +/- 0.5 mm (P less than 0.01) four days after dilatation, but was not significantly different from predilatation values after 12 weeks. Improvement in symptoms of dysphagia was striking (P less than 0.01) four days and six weeks after dilatation, but worsened again at 12 weeks (P = NS). It is unlikely that esophageal dilatation adversely affects the intraesophageal environment.