Oral Hygiene Status and Gingival Status of the 12- to 15-year-old Orphanage Children Residing in Delhi State: A Cross-sectional Study.

AIM AND OBJECTIVE: To assess oral hygiene status and practices among 12- to 15-year-old orphanage children in Delhi State, India. STUDY DESIGN: In this cross-sectional study, a one-stage cluster sampling design was carried out with orphanages as a cluster unit to assess oral hygiene status and practices among orphanage children in Delhi state, India. RESULTS: The majority of the orphanage children had good oral hygiene status (53.8%) followed by fair (32.3%) and poor (13.9%) oral hygiene status. A large proportion (48.3%) of the orphanage children had mild gingival status followed by moderate (34.9%) and severe (16.8%) gingival status. No statistical difference was reported for the distribution of oral hygiene status and gingival score across all the age-groups. Most (53%) of the orphanage children among all age-groups had good plaque status. The correlation of gingival index (GI) scores with plaque index (PI) score and oral hygiene index-simplified (OHI-S) scores showed a significant correlation of GI scores with PI scores (r = 0.815) and OHI-S scores (r = 0.799). CONCLUSION: The oral hygiene practices and oral hygiene status along with gingival status were found to be satisfactory among orphanage children in the present study. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Gingival and periodontal diseases have a high prevalence among orphanages because of poor hygiene practices. Untreated oral diseases could lead to general health problems. Thus, the preventive strategies can be planned with the exact knowledge of the oral hygiene status of these special needs children in Delhi state. HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE: Kumari A, Marya C, Oberoi SS, et al. Oral Hygiene Status and Gingival Status of the 12- to 15-year-old Orphanage Children Residing in Delhi State: A Cross-sectional Study. Int J Clin Pediatr Dent 2021;14(4):482-487.

Preliminary Clinical Evidence of the Antiplaque, Antigingivitis Efficacy of a Mouthwash Containing 2% Green Tea - A Randomised Clinical Trial.

PURPOSE: To assess the efficacy of a mouthwash containing 2% green tea as compared to a placebo mouthwash for the control of plaque and gingivitis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A randomised controlled clinical trial was conducted on 110 male subjects 18-60 years of age. The inclusion criteria were having a minimum of 20 sound natural teeth, a plaque index (PI) of at least 1.5 and a gingival index (GI) of at least 1.0. The subjects were randomised into two parallel groups, test and control. Subjects in the test group and control group were instructed to rinse twice daily for 1 min with 10 ml of test (mouthwash containing 2% green tea) and placebo mouthwash, respectively. After 28 days of using the mouthwash, inter- and intragroup differences for mean plaque index and gingival index scores were analysed. RESULTS: There was a significant (p < 0.05) reduction in mean GI and PI scores among the test group from baseline to 28 days, whereas it was not significant in the control group. A statistically significant (p < 0.05) reduction was found in the mean difference in GI scores in the test group (0.67 ± 0.22) as compared to the control group (0.05 ± 0.11) and a statistically significant (p < 0.05) reduction was observed in the mean difference in PI scores in the test group (1.65 ± 0.68) compared to the control group (0.45 ± 0.99). CONCLUSION: The results showed that the green tea mouthwash was effective in the reduction of plaque and gingivitis scores.

Prevalence of Various Orofacial Pain Symptoms and Their Overall Impact on Quality of Life in a Tertiary Care Hospital in India.

BACKGROUND: Pain is a major public health problem and is the most commonly reported symptom of oral and dental disease that has a significant impact on both individual and community. The present study was prevalence of various orofacial pain symptoms and their overall impact on the quality of life in a tertiary care hospital. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study was carried out in the outpatient department of the Government Dental College and Research Institute, Bangalore. The severity of the chronic orofacial pain symptoms was assessed using the Chronic Pain Grade Questionnaire by Von Korff. RESULTS: The results showed that toothache (57.6 %) was the most commonly reported symptom and burning mouth sensation (6.4 %) was the least commonly reported. Majority of the patients had grade 3 level of pain-related disability (34.8 %) followed by grade 2 (26.8 %), grade 1 (22.4 %) and grade 4 levels (16 %). The mean pain intensity was reported to be more among females and maximum among patients with facial pain. CONCLUSION: The present study demonstrated that orofacial pain symptoms have a significant impact on the patients suffering from it. Therefore, proper measures should be taken for the management of the patients with these symptoms and associated conditions.

Knowledge and Attitude of Faculty Members Working in Dental Institutions towards the Dental Treatment of Patients with HIV/AIDS.

Background. Dentists have an ethical responsibility to provide treatment to HIV-infected patients, particularly because oral lesions are common among these patients. However, there are no official guidelines as to how to treat people living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) (PLWHA) or how to screen for potentially infectious people. Materials and Method. A descriptive cross-sectional questionnaire based study which assessed the knowledge and attitude of the faculty members towards the treatment of patients with HIV/AIDS was carried out in the Sudha Rustagi College of Dental Sciences, Faridabad, and Maulana Azad Institute of Dental Sciences, New Delhi. Results. The willingness to treat patients with HIV was found to be 86.0% among the faculty members in the present study. The majority (79%) of the faculty members thought that treating an HIV-positive patient is ethical responsibility of the dentist. There was a positive attitude (88.0%) among faculty members that routine dental care should be a part of the treatment of patients with HIV/AIDS. Conclusion. The level of knowledge regarding HIV and AIDS was acceptable in the present study. However, continuing dental education (CDE) programmes should be conducted on a regular basis for updating the knowledge level of the faculty members towards the dental treatment of patients with HIV/AIDS patients.