Pattern of dental caries in 3-6-year-old children using decayed, missing, filled surface index and hierarchical caries pattern system: A descriptive study.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The dental caries status of a population group with permanent dentition is traditionally described using decayed, missing, and filled teeth or surface (DMFT or DMFS) index, and the corresponding index for the primary dentition is dmft or dmfs. dmf value alone has certain limitations; therefore, additional measures to describe dental caries are important. Poulsen and Horowitz in 1997 described a hierarchical method to determine the severity of dental caries. AIM OF THE STUDY: The aim of the study was to determine the pattern of dental caries in 3-6-year-old children using Poulsen and Horowitz hierarchical system and to assess the usefulness of this system. METHODOLOGY: Data were collected from 500, 3-6-year-old children. Dmfs was recorded according to World Health Organization criteria 2013. On the basis of the caries recordings, the dmfs score of each child was calculated and each child was assigned to one of the six zones of increasing caries severity, ranging from 0 (caries free) to 5 (most severe). STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: The collected data were tabulated and analyzed using Student's t-test, ANOVA, and Pearson's correlation coefficient. RESULTS: The overall mean dmfs for the study population was 9.10. The distribution of children according to the severity zones of Poulsen and Horowitz indicates a very low percentage (17.8%) of caries-free children and also a high percentage of children with caries in severity zone 2 (33.4%) and 4 (18.6%). CONCLUSION: The Poulsen and Horowitz model gives broader aspect for the assessment of severity of dental caries in 3-6-year-old children.

Initiation of MDR TB treatment: is hospitalization worth?

BACKGROUND: The treatment for MDR TB is quite prolonged and associated with adverse effects and hence costly. AIM: The aim of study was to study the side-effects of reserve line drugs developing in initial seven days of starting therapy, so as to weigh the need for admission for initiation of treatment against heavy economic burden by admission of huge number of MDR TB patients, and to identify the factors which may have an effect on the number of patients developing side-effects METHODS: All MDR TB patients (930) admitted during study period, who were initiated on Cat IV treatment for MDR TB under RNTCP were questioned daily for any side-effects throughout the day, during initial seven days of treatment. RESULTS: On day one, 342 (36.8%) patients developed side-effects, on 2nd day 456 (49%), on day 3 356 (38.3 %), on fourth day 257 (27.6%), then on fifth day only 172 (18.5 %) patients respectively had reported side-effects. Further decline of side-effects was reported on sixth day 94(10.1%) and seventh day 39(4.2%). Number of events also decreased from 669 on dayl and 965 on day 2, to only 61 on day 7 of treatment. Most of the patients had nausea, vomiting, pain abdomen, restlessness, dizziness, insomnia and headache. Patients with low Hemoglobin had more side-effects from day 2 onwards (p<0.05).Age, BMI, gender and co-morbidities had no significant effect on side-effects in these patients. CONCLUSION: Many patients report side-effects initially on treatment, which gradually decrease from day 4 onwards , so hospitalization for atleast seven days during initiation of Cat IV may not be required in all the patients.