Assessment of Oral Health-Related Quality of Life Using the Oral Impact on Daily Performance (OIDP) Instrument Among Secondary School Teachers of Modinagar, Uttar Pradesh: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Introduction Oral health has an impact on a person's general health, well-being, and quality of life. Due to their expertise and interactions with people, school staff members can actively contribute to the promotion of children's health if provided with the proper training. Methodology A cross-sectional survey was conducted to assess the "oral health-related quality of life" using the Oral Impact on Daily Performance (OIDP) instrument among the secondary school teachers of Modinagar, Uttar Pradesh. The study included a sample of 400 government secondary school teachers and 400 private secondary school teachers. The independent sample t-test was performed to assess the relationship between the mean of OIDP dimensions and the prevalence of dental caries. Any p-value less than 0.05 was considered significant. The data was analyzed using the SPSS version 20.0 software package (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY). Results In the present study, most of the participants (174 (43.5%) government teachers and 197 (49.2%) private teachers) were in the age group of 41-50 years. According to the Decayed, Missing, and Filled Teeth (DMFT) index, the mean decayed teeth present for government and private school teachers were 0.45 ± 0.503 and 0.41 ± 0.493, respectively, and the mean DMF scores for government and private teachers were 1.27 ± 0.736 and 1.03 ± 0.757, respectively. There was a positive correlation between the DMFT scores and the mean scores for the dimensions of the OIDP among both government and private secondary school teachers. Conclusion The poor dental health status of teachers' has a bad impact on everyday performance and academic work. The findings of the study highlight the need for oral health education and good oral health maintenance among school teachers since they are the ones who can easily influence the behavior of the children.

Acquaintance and Approach in the Direction of Tobacco Cessation Among Dental Practitioners-A Systematic Review.

BACKGROUND: Nowadays, tobacco consumption has become one of the major public health problems and is the leading cause of escapable illness and death. A significant role is played by dental professionals in the identification of smokers; they are, thus, in a better position to offer preventive care. The aim of the present study was to systemically review the knowledge and attitude of dental practitioners toward tobacco cessation. METHODS: A literature search was performed in PubMed Central and Cochrane Library, Medline-PubMed, Embase, Google Scholar up to 2018 to identify appropriate studies. Full-text original research articles of the cross-sectional design were only included in the study. Our target was to systemically review the knowledge and attitude of dental practitioners toward tobacco cessation. RESULTS: The present review included a total of nine articles (studies) that fulfilled the eligibility criteria. Two articles which were hand searched and one article which was obtained through contact with experts were included. The results of the review revealed that the dental practitioners in most of the included studies lack satisfactory knowledge and were unaware of existing referral pathways to specialist smoking cessation services. At the same time, most of the dentists have a positive attitude toward tobacco cessation. CONCLUSIONS: Dental professionals are aware of their obligations toward smoking cessation counseling for patients but certain barriers including lack of time, confidence, and training prevent them from practicing the same in their daily routine. The dental professionals should obtain appropriate training and attain knowledge along with quantifiable skills for the prevention and cessation of tobacco use.

Assessment of implementation and compliance of (COTPA) Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products Act (2003) in open places of Delhi.

BACKGROUND: The use of tobacco in modern life leads to major epidemic disease resulting in social, financial, and environmental problems. In 1975, the first anti-tobacco legislation was passed which was incompetent; however, in 2003 "Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Bill" was passed which represents effectiveness in tobacco control. Thus, the aim was to assess the implementation of various sections of COTPA like Sections 4, 5, 6-a, and 6-b, and 7, 8, and 9 in public places of Delhi. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was conducted in open places of Delhi in which 376 public places were visited for observing the compliance of Section 4 of COTPA, 350 places for observing the compliance of Section 5 of COTPA, and 70 educational institutions for observing the compliance of Section 6(a) and 6(b) of COTPA, and data were recorded through direct observation. RESULTS: From a total of 376 places visited, smoking was seen in 59.28% of the places visited in Delhi which is against Section 4 of COTPA. For the compliance of Section 5, 97.42% were as per the COTPA specification; however, the compliance of Section 6-a was 68.57% and Section 6-b was 52.85%. In Delhi, 100% compliance of Sections 7, 8, and 9 has been observed. CONCLUSION: The finding of our study suggests that after years of implementation of the COTPA Act 2003, it is executed only to a certain degree in Delhi. For effective implementation of act, various health policy makers, institutions, media, NGOs, and so on can help in minimizing the usage.

Influence of the previous dental visit experience in seeking dental care among young adults.

INTRODUCTION: Dental fear is one of the highly prevalent types of fear which deters patients from seeking dental cares. AIM: This study aims to assess the influence of a previous dental visit experience for seeking dental care among adults. METHODOLOGY: Young adults (n = 150, 15-26 years) with previous dental visit for care were selected randomly among outpatients' visit in tertiary dental teaching hospital. To assess the influence of previous experience of dental visit in seeking care, we self-administered a Post-traumatic Check List-Civilian Version [posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)], an Autobiographical Memory Questionnaire (AMQ), and a Dental Fear Survey (DFS). The relationship of negative and positive experience of previous dental treatment, dental fear, and symptoms of PTSD was assessed using Pearson's correlations. Spearman's rho was used to find out the correlation between the DFS and PCL-C and history of dental treatment undergone. RESULTS: The mean score of the DFS and PCL-C was found to be 69.57 and 40.17, respectively. The characteristics of the most negative experience including physical reactions (P = 0.936), emotional intensity (P = 0.935), sight (P = 0.941), smell (P = 0.917), and sound (P = 0.911) of dental treatment showed a significant relationship with dental fear, whereas the characteristics of the most positive memory of dental treatment showed only a few statistically significant associations with dental fear. Most of the symptoms of PTSD also show significant associations (P < 0.05) with characteristics of the most negative memory. Spearman's correlation between the DFS and the PCL-C was also statistically significant, r (150) =0.365, indicating that dental fear is indeed associated with symptoms of PTSD. CONCLUSION: There is a significant association between the characteristics of the most negative experiences of dental treatment and increased dental fear in young adults, while positive experiences did not show the inverse relationship with dental fear.

Assessment of knowledge and attitude regarding management of patients with substance usage in dental clinics in Modinagar- A cross-sectional study.

INTRODUCTION: The consequences of oral issues among drug users necessitate the implementation of a comprehensive dental care program. Integrated oral health-care services should be programmed for the management of drug addiction as a multi-organ disease needs a multi-disciplinary approach. AIM: The aim of the present study was to assess the knowledge and attitude regarding the management of patients with substance usage at a dental clinic. METHODOLOGY: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 208 dentists working as clinicians. A self-structured 27-item questionnaire consisting of questions related to the management of patients with substance usage at a dental clinic was distributed to them. Data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 20.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) and descriptive and analytical tests, including mean, standard deviation, and Chi-square test were used. P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: Majority of the dentist irrespective of qualification were unaware of the modalities regarding the management of the patients with substance usage at the dental clinic. Most dental clinicians were having a positive attitude regarding such patients and agreed that abuser should be identified and managed in dental settings. CONCLUSION: Educating dental graduates and postgraduates about the oral implications of substance usage and making it a part of the dental curriculum may help us deal with the global issues of substance usage. The dental setting is recognized increasingly as an untapped venue for the delivery of medical screenings, given the long-term nature and frequent contacts associated with the patient-dentist relationship.

Adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system-based path planning of 5-degrees-of-freedom spatial manipulator for medical applications.

Over the last few decades, medical-assisted robots have been considered by many researchers, within the research domain of robotics. In this article, a 5-degrees-of-freedom spatial medical manipulator is analyzed for path planning, based on inverse kinematic solutions. Analytical methods have generally employed for finding the inverse kinematic solutions in earlier studies. However, this method is only appreciable in case of closed-form solutions. The unusual joint configurations of considered manipulator result in more complexity to attain the closed-form solutions, analytically. To overcome with shortcomings of analytical method, a non-traditional approach named adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system is proposed under the class of artificial intelligent techniques. This article presents this neuro-fuzzy approach for desired path generation by 5-degrees-of-freedom manipulator. The estimation of percentage error between actual path and adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system-generated path is done with respect to x, y, and z directions, respectively. Furthermore, the error between actual and predicted values regarding joint parameters is calculated for a certain arm matrix. The prototype of 5-degrees-of-freedom medical-assisted manipulator is developed at CSIR-CSIO Laboratory Chandigarh, which is also termed as patient-side manipulator to be utilized in robot-assisted surgery. Through the simulation runs, in this work, it is found that the results from adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system approach are quite satisfactory and acceptable.

Kinematic modeling of a 7-degree of freedom spatial hybrid manipulator for medical surgery.

The prime objective of this work is to deal with the kinematics of spatial hybrid manipulators. In this direction, in 1955, Denavit and Hartenberg proposed a consistent and concise method, known as D-H parameters method, to deal with kinematics of open serial chains. From literature review, it is found that D-H parameter method is widely used to model manipulators consisting of lower pairs. However, the method leads to ambiguities when applied to closed-loop, tree-like and hybrid manipulators. Furthermore, in the dearth of any direct method to model closed-loop, tree-like and hybrid manipulators, revisions of this method have been proposed from time-to-time by different researchers. One such kind of revision using the concept of dummy frames has successfully been proposed and implemented by the authors on spatial hybrid manipulators. In that work, authors have addressed the orientational inconsistency of the D-H parameter method, restricted to body-attached frames only. In the current work, the condition of body-attached frames is relaxed and spatial frame attachment is considered to derive the kinematic model of a 7-degree of freedom spatial hybrid robotic arm, along with the development of closed-loop constraints. The validation of the new kinematic model has been performed with the help of a prototype of this 7-degree of freedom arm, which is being developed at Council of Scientific & Industrial Research-Central Scientific Instruments Organisation Chandigarh to aid the surgeon during a medical surgical task. Furthermore, the developed kinematic model is used to develop the first column of the Jacobian matrix, which helps in providing the estimate of the tip velocity of the 7-degree of freedom manipulator when the first joint velocity is known.

Global Search Trends of Oral Problems using Google Trends from 2004 to 2016: An Exploratory Analysis.

INTRODUCTION: Oral diseases are pandemic cause of morbidity with widespread geographic distribution. This technology based era has brought about easy knowledge transfer than traditional dependency on information obtained from family doctors. Hence, harvesting this system of trends can aid in oral disease quantification. AIM: To conduct an exploratory analysis of the changes in internet search volumes of oral diseases by using Google Trends© (GT©). MATERIALS AND METHODS: GT© were utilized to provide real world facts based on search terms related to categories, interest by region and interest over time. Time period chosen was from January 2004 to December 2016. Five different search terms were explored and compared based on the highest relative search volumes along with comma separated value files to obtain an insight into highest search traffic. RESULTS: The search volume measured over the time span noted the term "Dental caries" to be the most searched in Japan, "Gingivitis" in Jordan, "Oral Cancer" in Taiwan, "No Teeth" in Australia, "HIV symptoms" in Zimbabwe, "Broken Teeth" in United Kingdom, "Cleft palate" in Philippines, "Toothache" in Indonesia and the comparison of top five searched terms provided the "Gingivitis" with highest search volume. CONCLUSION: The results from the present study offers an insight into a competent tool that can analyse and compare oral diseases over time. The trend research platform can be used on emerging diseases and their drift in geographic population with great acumen. This tool can be utilized in forecasting, modulating marketing strategies and planning disability limitation techniques.

An Insight into Spiritual Health and Coping Tactics among Dental Students; A Gain or Blight: A Cross-sectional Study.

INTRODUCTION: Spiritual health is the youngest dimension of health which affects the coping skills of the individual and may help the dental students who are the caregivers of the future, to overcome crisis situation with time. AIM: To measure the association between spiritual health and coping skills among the dental students of private dental college. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A questionnaire based cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the spiritual health status using Spiritual Health Assessment Scale (SHAS) and coping skills using Adolescent Coping Orientation for Problem Experiences (ACOPE) scale among the 389 dental students of different academic years in a private dental college. The data obtained was subjected to descriptive statistics and means were compared using independent t-test and one-way ANOVA. RESULTS: The mean age of the study participants was 22.8±3.17 years. Majority of the students had fair spiritual health score (74.55%). Of the coping strategies dimension, highest mean score was observed in seeking diversions (3.60±1.40) and the least mean score was observed in engaging in demanding activities (2.67±1.41). Statistically significant association was seen between dimension of coping behaviour and spiritual health (p≤ 0.05). CONCLUSION: The present study highlights that spiritual health plays a central role and influences the coping strategies in human health. The spiritual health can continuously compensate with other health like mental, physical and social well-being.

Psychometric Utility in Determining Dental Organizational Attribute: A Cross Sectional Study in Ghaziabad, India.

INTRODUCTION: Psychometrics is the field of research involved with the objective measurement of finesse and intelligence, skills, temperament, personality traits, and educational success and technique of psychological measurement. Oral healthcare along with patient satisfaction and quality of care are main factors responsible for organizational attribute. Patient safety is relatively emerging domain which will result in improving patient's conditions without causing harm to them. AIM: To assess the psychometric behaviours as well as organization attribute with the help of modified version of Survey of Organizational Attributes for Primary Care (SOAPC) instrument among the dental care practitioners in Ghaziabad city, Uttar Pradesh, India. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 268 dental practitioner of Ghaziabad city to determine psychometric behaviours and organizational attributes using SOADC instrument. Data was analysed using SPSS software version 18.0 and was subjected to descriptive and Mann-Whitney U test. RESULTS: Of the 268 dental practitioner, only 249 completed questionnaires. In communication, 70.3% agreed that they have constructive work relationship with staff with an overall mean score of 3.54±0.15, whereas in the subscale decision making, stress/chaos and history of change, the mean score of 2.77±0.98, 2.56±0.80 and 3.25±0.21 respectively were obtained. A statistical significant difference was noted between all the dimensions except stress/chaos and history of change (p≤0.05). CONCLUSION: SOADC can be used to assess psychometric behaviours and organizational attributes of dental care practice. Preference should be given to dentist's communication and reducing stress to enhance the service quality and improving safety of patient.

Altmetrics - A Collated Adjunct Beyond Citations for Scholarly Impact: A Systematic Review.

INTRODUCTION: In emerging Figures, scholars are unifying social media tools like blogs, Twitter, and Mendeley into their professional communications. The online, open nature of these tools reveals the scholarly action to be clear and unambiguous. Metrics which is set on these activities could enlighten broader, faster measures of impact, supplementing traditional citation metrics. AIM: The present review aims to analyse the correlation of altmetrics with the traditional citations in medical research. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The search strategy used a combination of controlled vocabulary and free text terms. The main database searched were PubMed, PubMed Central, Cochrane Review, Embase and Google Scholar from 2010 to 2016. Out of the total 78 titles appeared seven articles fulfilled the criteria and were selected for the review. RESULTS: The positive correlation between altmetrics and traditional citations indicates that the two are not entirely different from each other and are familiar with each other. Altmetrics are usually accessible earlier and enable us to evaluate the social impact of scholarly research, almost at the actual time. CONCLUSION: Much work is needed to develop this research which will focus on the clarity of the impact signal. Thus newer dimensions, such as altmetrics and article-level metrics are an effort to explore the influence of research across the worldwide population.

Nomophobia: A Cross-sectional Study to Assess Mobile Phone Usage Among Dental Students.

INTRODUCTION: Mobile phones were originally seen as a gadget for communication but currently, the internet enabled mobile phones have become an integral part of our daily life. Their benefits are incomparable but at the same time, they have some negative effects too. AIM: To assess the pattern of usage of mobile phones and its effects on the academic performance of students. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted amongst 554 students of D. J. College of Dental Sciences and Research through a self-administered questionnaire to collect the data regarding the usage and associated anxiety with mobile phone. RESULTS: About 39.5% students agreed that they score low marks in professional exams if they spend more time on phone. The number of students who frequently checked their cell phone during their classes or while doing clinical work were 24.7% . A total of 24.12% of the students were found to be nomophobic and at risk of being nomophobes were 40.97%. A statistically significant difference was found among preclinical, clinical, interns and postgraduates regarding the usage and effect of mobile phone on them. CONCLUSION: The pattern of usage of mobile phone among dental students showed alarming indication that students have been addicted to mobile phone which in turn affect their academic performance in a negative way. It would be useful to advise the students about the controlled as well as proper usage of mobile phone.

MRI in Dentistry- A Future Towards Radiation Free Imaging - Systematic Review.

INTRODUCTION: Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), being a technique with huge potential, has become the primary diagnostic investigation for many clinical problems. Its application now has been successfully used in dentistry to maximize the diagnostic certainty. AIM: The present review aims to analyze the applicability, feasibility and efficacy of MRI in the field of dentistry. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A literature search was performed in main databases like Pub Med Central, Cochrane Library, Embase and Google Scholar from 1970 up to December 2015. The 2672 titles that appeared, 25 fulfilled the criteria and were included in the review. Two articles were hand searched and three articles through e-mail were also included. RESULTS: The review highlights the increasing role of MRI in dentistry. In the available literature, it was found that T1 and T2 weighted images were the acceptable diagnostic images for detection of dental related diseases. CONCLUSION: MRI can be used in diagnosis and treatment planning of implants, jaw lesions, diseases of Temporomandibular Joints (TMJ), orthodontic treatment, endodontic treatment etc., to achieve better prognosis.

Global Tourist Guide to Oral Care - A Systematic Review.

INTRODUCTION: Dental tourism means travelling abroad for economical dental treatment as the cost of treatment is high in one's own country. This trend has been emerged due to high priced health care and long waiting lists in many Western countries. In spite of large debates on dental care, tourism has taken place; still there is lack of scientific studies related to the dental tourism. AIM: The present review aims to analyze the opportunities, feasibilities, treatment cost variability and popularity of dental tourism. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The search strategy used a combi-nation of controlled vocabulary and free text terms. The main database was PubMed, PubMed Central, Cochrane Review, Embase and Google Scholar from 2000 - 2015. Out of the total 69 titles appeared seven articles fulfilled the criteria and were selected for the review. One article which was hand searched and one article through email were also included. RESULTS: This review focused the strengths of India's dental tourism service as there is a lot of cost difference with good quality work when we compared India to the other countries. Like cost for smile designing in US is 8,000$ and in India is 1,000$ and for dental implants in the US is 2,000$, in Hungary is 1070$ and in India 600$ approximately. CONCLUSION: Government and industrial infrastructure favours the growth of dental tourism in India. The opportunities like less price with good quality care in India helps to make further progress in dental tourism.

Graphical Assessment Technique (GAT) - An Objective, Comprehensive and Comparative Hand Hygiene Quantification Tool.

INTRODUCTION: There has been a profound leap in developing countries in sectors of human development but it falls short of millennium development goals. Diarrhoea, respiratory infections are primary cause of child deaths around the world due to improper hygiene practice. There is lack of systematic objective analysis, follow-up and quantification of hand hygiene guidelines. So, there is an urgent requisite of a tool to assess the same. AIM: To conduct a pilot test for assessing the efficacy of Graphical Assessment Technique (GAT) in objectively evaluating and comparing intervention based hand hygiene among students of National Association of Blind School (NABS) and a government school. MATERIALS AND METHODS: GAT was used to assess the baseline and post-intervention improvement of 80 students considered for the study. Data was analyzed using SPSS software version 20.0 and was subjected to quantitative analysis and parametric tests. RESULTS: Non-significant difference (p≥0.05) was found at baseline and immediate post-intervention on percentage mean scores of blind school students and government school student, while government school children also showed non-significant difference at one week. Significant difference (p≤0.05) was found at baseline, post-intervention one week and post-intervention one month for blind school children along with baseline and post-intervention mean percentage scores for government school children. CONCLUSION: The primary agenda behind the study was to test a tool which can objectively evaluate, quantify and compare the follow-up of hand hygiene guidelines and aid in better hand hygiene promotion.

Imaging More Imagining less: An Insight into Knowledge, Attitude and Practice Regarding Radiation Risk on Pregnant Women among Dentists of Ghaziabad - A Cross Sectional Study.

INTRODUCTION: The safety of diagnostic imaging during pregnancy is an important aspect for all clinicians. Pregnant women often do not receive proper dental care as the dentists are not aware of low diagnostic radiation doses involved in dental radiation. AIM: To assess awareness of radiation risks on pregnant women among dentists of Ghaziabad city. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 268 practicing dentists in Ghaziabad were selected for a questionnaire based cross-sectional study. Data consisted of 18 questions which assessed the knowledge, attitude and practice of dental professionals regarding radiation risks on pregnant women. The questionnaire was distributed and collected personally by the principal investigator. Data was analyzed by Mann Whitney U test and chi-square test. The level of significance was set at p ≤ 0.05. RESULTS: The results showed that the dentists who had attended continuing dental education program had increased level of knowledge regarding radiation effects among pregnant women as compared to the dentists who had not attended continuing dental education programs (p<0.05). Among them who had attended continuing dental education programs 93.3% were aware of the safe dose of radiation and 62% were aware of threshold radiation doses of pregnancy termination. On the contrary there was no significant difference in the knowledge, attitude and practice scores regarding radiation risks on pregnant women based on their academic qualification (p≥0.05). CONCLUSION: The level of knowledge among dentists was found to be satisfactory, this outcome shows that continuing dental education regarding radiation protection principles and its risks on pregnant women is required to ensure maximum safety both for clinician as well as pregnant women.

An Insight into Health Care Setup in National Capital Region of India using Dimensions of Learning Organizations Questionnaire (DLOQ)- A Cross-Sectional Study.

INTRODUCTION: Over the past decades India, though being a developing country has progressed in multiple sectors but has not shown a substantial qualitative progress in healthcare. To be able to evaluate learning organization in a healthcare setup would thrust millennium development goals and infuse continuous learning model into health sector. AIM: To assess health care context using the Dimensions of the Learning Organization Questionnaire (DLOQ) in a health care setting in National Capital Region of India. MATERIALS AND METHODS: DLOQ proforma were distributed among 315 employees at all levels of the hospital. Data was analysed using SPSS software version 19.0 and was subjected to quantitative analysis and non-parametric tests. RESULTS: The Kruskal-Wallis test indicated a significant difference between the means of the different professions where as Mann-Whitney tests compared the relation between each of the profession and a significant difference (p < 0.05) was noted, except dimension "systems connection". CONCLUSION: The results provided sufficient inputs about the multidimensional learning organization capacity of a health care setting in a rapidly developing country.

The Clinical Effectiveness of Post-Brushing Rinsing in Reducing Plaque and Gingivitis: A Systematic Review.

INTRODUCTION: Dental plaque is the major etiological factor associated with the development of gingivitis. Hence, maintenance of oral hygiene is very essential. AIM: To systematically review the literature on the effects of a post toothbrushing rinsing on plaque and parameters of gingival inflammation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A literature review was performed in PubMed Central and Cochrane library, embase, google scholar were searched up to February 2015 to identify appropriate studies. The primary outcome measure was plaque and gingival inflammation reduction. RESULTS: Out of the total 56 titles appeared, 08articles fulfilled the criteria and were selected for the review. One article which was hand searched and one article which was through e-mail was included. A statistically significant reduction in overall plaque and gingivitis was noted when different mouth rinses were compared to the control (p<0.05). It was seen that chlorhexidine is the best antiplaque and antigingivitis agent but due to its side effects after continuous use, was not indicated for long term use. Probiotic was superior to chlorhexidine in terms of reduction of gingival inflammation. CONCLUSION: There are relatively few studies evaluating the association between post toothbrushing rinsing and gingivitis. A clear effect was observed, indicating that different mouthrinses (chlorhexidine, probiotic, herbal, essential oil mouthrinse) when used as an adjunct to mechanical means of oral hygiene, provides an additional benefit with regard to plaque and gingivitis reduction as compared to a placebo or control.

Recasting Disaster Recovery Strategy at Dental Workplace in Combating Crisis - A Questionnaire Study.

INTRODUCTION: The number of reported natural and human-made disasters continues to rise worldwide. Disasters occur every day somewhere in the world with dramatic impact on individuals, families and communities. AIM: This study was designed to measure the knowledge, attitude and practices regarding disaster management among academicians and practitioners in Ghaziabad city. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 487 dentists. A questionnaire (15 items) measuring knowledge, attitude and practice was distributed manually to the participating dentists and data was analysed using SPSS software, version 19.0 and student t-test was performed to assess the differences. RESULTS: There was statistically significant relation between knowledge and attitude in relation to qualification degree, career prospective and years of experience (p <0.05). CONCLUSION: Dentists form an important part of the health care community and thus there is a need to harvest the services of wide distribution of dentists practicing in our country.

Oral Health and Oral Contraceptive - Is it a Shadow behind Broad Day Light? A Systematic Review.

INTRODUCTION: Oral contraceptives are one of the risk factors for gingival disease. Oral contraceptives can affect the proliferation of cell, growth and differentiation of tissues in the periodontium. Nowadays recent research has suggested that the newer generation oral contraceptives have less influence on gingival diseases. AIM: The purpose of this study was to systematically review the effect of oral contraceptives on periodontium. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A literature review was performed; PubMed, PubMed Central and Cochrane Library, Embase, Google Scholar were searched from 1970 up to December 2015 to identify appropriate studies. RESULTS: Out of the total 94 titles appeared 13 articles fulfilled the criteria and were selected for the review. Two articles which were hand searched and one article which was through e-mail was also included. The hormones progesterone and estrogen have direct impact on immune system of the body and thus, affect the pattern and rate of collagen production in the gingiva. Furthermore, the review also shows that longer duration usage of oral contraceptive could lead to poorer oral hygiene status, gingival inflammation and increased susceptibility to periodontal disease. CONCLUSION: There are relatively few studies evaluating the effect of oral contraceptives on periodontium. It was found that oral contraceptives have a marked effect on periodontium. The gingival changes after use of oral contraceptives are pronounced in the first few months and with the passage of time these changes get enhanced.