Dental caries prevalence and its association with fluoride level in drinking water in Sana'a, Yemen.

OBJECTIVES: Dental caries is the most prevalent chronic condition affecting schoolchildren worldwide. This study is aimed to assess the prevalence of dental caries among schoolchildren in urban and rural districts of Sana'a governorate, Yemen, and to investigate the correlation between caries experience and level of fluoride in drinking water, age, gender, and residence. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This school-based survey involved 17,599 schoolchildren (aged 6-12 years), of whom 9623 were boys and 7976 were girls. We used decay-missing-filled teeth/decay-filled teeth (DMFT/dft) indices to evaluate dental caries experience. In addition, fluoride concentration in drinking water was investigated. RESULTS: Around 67.6% of children had dental caries. Children residing in urban districts had significantly higher mean scores of DMFT/dft than those in rural areas (P < 0.05). A significant negative correlation between caries experience and fluoride level was found (P < 0.05), with the lowest dft/DMFT scores at the optimum fluoride level of 0.61-2 ppm and the highest at two extremes, 0.0-0.4 ppm and >2 ppm. CONCLUSION: This survey found a very high prevalence of caries among schoolchildren in Yemen. There was also an inverse relation between dental caries experience and fluoride levels.

Efficacy of low level laser therapy in the treatment of burning mouth syndrome: A systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Burning mouth syndrome (BMS) is a chronic pain condition with indefinite cure, predominantly affecting post-menopausal women. The aim of this study was to systematically review the efficacy of low level laser therapy in the treatment of burning mouth syndrome (BMS). METHODS: PubMed, Embase and Scopus were searched from date of inception till and including October 2016 using various combinations of the following keywords: burning mouth syndrome, BMS, stomatodynia, laser therapy, laser treatment and phototherapy. The inclusion criteria were: Prospective, retrospective and case series studies. Letter to editors, reviews, experimental studies, studies that were not published in English, theses, monographs, and abstracts presented in scientific events were excluded. Due to heterogeneity of data no statistical analyses were performed. RESULTS: Ten clinical studies fulfilled the eligibility criteria, five of which were randomized clinical trials. In these studies, the laser wavelengths, power output and duration of irradiation ranged between 630-980nm, 20-300mW, 10s-15min, respectively. Most of studies reported laser to be an effective therapy strategy for management of BMS. CONCLUSION: Majority of the studies showed that laser therapy seemed to be effective in reducing pain in BMS patients. However, due to the varied methodologies and substantial variations in laser parameters among these studies, more clinical trials are required to ascertain the efficacy of laser for treating BMS.