Restoration of teeth lacking complete ferrules using cast precious metal alloy post-and-cores and knife-edged crowns: A retrospective clinical study.

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM: While the presence of a ferrule has been reported to be essential for post-and-core restorations, many extensively damaged teeth lack complete ferrules. The outcome of post-and-core restorations for these teeth remains uncertain. PURPOSE: The purpose of this retrospective clinical study was to assess the outcome of cast alloy post-and-cores and knife-edged crowns for the restoration of teeth lacking complete ferrules. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total of 106 participants with endodontically treated teeth with 2 or fewer walls with ferrules who had received cast precious metal alloy post-and-cores along with knife-edged crowns between 2013 and 2022 were recalled for a clinical examination. The minimum follow-up time was 5 months after restoration, and restoration failure and the periodontal status difference between restored teeth and reference teeth were determined. Kaplan-Meier analysis was performed to obtain success curves. The influence of age, sex, jaw position, tooth type, and antagonistic dentition upon the success function was analyzed with the log-rank or Breslow test (α=.05). RESULTS: A total of 100 participants with 130 restorations were studied. The success rate of the restorations was 93.85% in a mean ±standard deviation period of 48.3 ±26.1 months. The estimated 5-year cumulative success probability was 91.61%. No significant effect on the success of restorations was found regarding age, sex, jaw position, tooth type, or antagonistic dentition (P>.05). The main failure types were post debonding, root fracture, and apical periodontitis. No statistical difference in tooth mobility (Z=-1.265, P=.206) was found between the restored and the reference teeth, but the plaque index and calculus index of the restored teeth were significantly lower than of the reference teeth (Z=-7.216, P<.001; Z=-7.044, P<.001). Teeth that had received cast post-and-cores and knife-edged crowns were found to have no significant correlation with periodontal disease (χ²=1.131, P=.288) or bleeding on probing (χ²=3.436, P=.064). CONCLUSIONS: The clinical outcomes for the restoration of teeth with 2 or fewer walls with ferrules using cast precious metal alloy post-and-cores and knife-edged crowns were favorable, exhibiting a high 5-year cumulative success probability and no increased periodontal health risk.

Clinical outcomes of self-glazed zirconia veneers produced by 3D gel deposition: a retrospective study.

BACKGROUND: Self-glazed zirconia (SZ) restorations are made by a novel additive three-dimensional gel deposition approach, which are suitable for a straightforward completely digital workflow. SZ has recently been used as minimally invasive veneer, but its clinical outcomes have not been clarified yet. This study aimed to evaluate the preliminary clinical outcomes of SZ veneers compared with the widely used lithium disilicate glass-ceramic veneers made by either pressing (PG) or milling (MG) process. METHODS: Fifty-six patients treated with SZ, PG, and MG veneers by 2 specialists between June 2018 and October 2022 were identified. Patients were recalled for follow-up at least 1 year after restoration. Clinical outcomes were assessed by 2 independent evaluators according to the modified United States Public Health Service (USPHS) criteria. Overall patient satisfaction was assessed using visual analogue scale (VAS), and analyzed by one-way ANOVA. Chi-square test was applied to compare the difference in the success and survival rates among the 3 groups. RESULTS: A total of 51 patients restored with 45 SZ, 40 PG, and 41 MG veneers completed the study, with a patient dropout rate of 8.9%. Mean and standard deviation of follow-up period was 35.0 ± 14.7 months. All restorations performed well at baseline, except for 2 SZ veneers with mismatched color (rated Bravo). During follow-up, marginal discrepancy (rated Bravo) was found in 4 MG veneers and 1 PG veneer, and partially fractured (rated Charlie) was found in another 2 PG veneers. The survival rate of SZ, PG, and MG veneers was 100%, 95%, and 100%, with a success rate of 95.56%, 92.50%, and 90.24%, respectively, none of which were significantly different (p = 0.099 and 0.628, respectively). The mean VAS score of SZ, PG, and MG was 95.00 ± 1.57, 93.93 ± 2.40, and 94.89 ± 2.00 respectively, without significant difference (p > 0.05). CONCLUSION: SZ veneers exhibited comparable preliminary clinical outcomes to PG and MG veneers, which could be considered as a feasible option for minimally invasive restorative treatment.

Turnover behavior and intention among dentists and medical doctors: a cross-sectional study in China.

BACKGROUND: Retention of doctors is a global challenge and doctors working in different departments may face different problems. The study aimed to explore the turnover behavior and intention and correlated factors among Chinese dentists and medical doctors in other clinical fields. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted online in 5 regions of China from March 12th to April 12th, 2020. The questionnaire included 3 parts, socio-demographic characteristics, turnover behavior and intention, and concerns about work-related factors. Chi-square test and/or Wilcoxon Mann-Whitney test were applied for comparison, and binary logistic regression was used for finding the factors. RESULTS: A total of 2428 eligible questionnaire were received, comprising 1954 responses from dentists and 474 from medical doctors. Rates of turnover behavior among dentists and medical doctors were 2.87% and 6.96%, respectively. Similarly, rates of turnover intention were 51.79% among dentists and 71.20% among medical doctors. Educational level was negatively correlated with turnover behavior of both medical doctors and dentists, and concern about salary was a unique negatively correlated factor for dentists. Age was negatively correlated with turnover intention in both medical doctors and dentists. Conversely, concerns about workload and doctor-patient relationship were positively correlated with turnover intention in both groups. Concern about salary was the distinct correlated factor of medical doctors' turnover intention, while gender and annual household income were correlated with turnover intention among dentists. CONCLUSIONS: Low turnover rate but high turnover intention rate was the current status of Chinese doctors' employment. Turnover behavior and intention were more optimistic among dentists than medical doctors. Factors related to turnover behavior and turnover intention were not identical among dentists and medical doctors. Therefore, personalized retention measures were necessary for dentists and medical doctors.

The direct transfer approach for transcellular drug delivery.

A promising paradigm for drug administration that has garnered increasing attention in recent years is the direct transfer (DT) of nanoparticles for transcellular drug delivery. DT requires direct cell-cell contact and facilitates unidirectional and bidirectional matter exchange between neighboring cells. Consequently, DT enables fast and deep penetration of drugs into the targeted tissues. This comprehensive review discusses the direct transfer concept, which can be delineated into the following three distinct modalities: membrane contact-direct transfer, gap junction-mediated direct transfer (GJ-DT), and tunneling nanotubes-mediated direct transfer (TNTs-DT). Further, the intercellular structures for each modality of direct transfer and their respective merits and demerits are summarized. The review also discusses the recent progress on the drugs or drug delivery systems that could activate DT.

Role of oncogene PIM-1 in the development and progression of papillary thyroid carcinoma: Involvement of oxidative stress.

In this study, we aimed to clarify the role of PIM-1 in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) in vitro and investigate the relationship between PIM-1 and redox proteins (NOX4, SOD2, and GPX2) at the tissue and cellular levels. As a PIM-1 inhibitor, SGI-1776 inhibited cell proliferation, colony formation, migration and induced an increase in apoptosis and reactive oxygen species in two PTC cell lines (BCPAP and TPC-1). The expressions of PIM-1, SOD2 and GPX2 were downregulated after siNOX4 exposure. Immunohistochemistry in 120 PTC patients showed that all four proteins exhibited higher expression levels in PTC tissues than in adjacent normal tissues. PIM-1 expression was related to NOX4, SOD2, and GPX2 expressions. The Cancer Genome Atlas database analysis showed the significant correlation between the expression of NOX4 and PIM-1. Our results demonstrated that PIM-1 played an important oncogenic role in PTC carcinogenesis that may be related to oxidative stress.

Expression and prognostic significance of MCM-3 and MCM-7 in salivary adenoid cystic carcinoma.

This study sought to investigate minichromosome maintenance protein 3 (MCM3) and minichromosome maintenance protein 7 (MCM7) expression in salivary adenoid cystic carcinoma (SACC) samples, and to evaluate the relationship between clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis. The expressions of MCM3 and MCM7 were evaluated using immunohistochemistry of tissue sections from SACC patients, and statistical analyses were performed to evaluate the associations between MCM expression and clinicopathological variables and to analyze the disease-free survival (DFS) and prognostic factors. The positive expression rates of MCM3 and MCM7 in SACC were 98.8% and 96.6%, respectively. MCM3 expression correlated with T-stage and nerve invasion. MCM7 expression correlated with T-stage, adjacent tissue invasion, nerve invasion, and prognosis, and was negatively associated with DFS. However, there was no significant correlation between MCM3 expression and DFS. A kappa analysis demonstrated that MCM3 was closely associated with MCM7. MCM7 may be a favorable prognosis indicator in SACC.