Assessment of Oral Health-related Quality of Life among Expatriate Working Population, Saudi Arabia: A Cross-sectional Study.

BACKGROUND: The expatriate workers (foreign workers) come from various countries having different languages, cultures, and tradition to work in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA); here they adopt to local customs, traditions, and work ethics in this new environment. How they perceive their oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) is important for health-care provider for understanding and planning in patient management. The data of expat workers and their OHRQoL in KSA are meager; hence, assessment of OHRQoL among expatriate working population in Al Zulfi, Saudi Arabia was planned. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted on adult expat working population of various nationalities who were working in Al Zulfi, KSA. The study sample comprised 600 adult expats. OHRQoL was analyzed by using 14-Item Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-14) questionnaire as instrument. Clinical examination for oral health status was carried out using decayed, missing, and filled teeth (DMFT) index and Oral Hygiene Index simplified (OHI-S). Student's t test and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to compare data using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software program, version 20.0 with significance at P ≤ 0.05. RESULTS: The age of the sample population ranged from 19 to 60 years. No significant difference was observed in oral health status among expats of different nationalities. Age and education were significantly related to OHRQoL as well as oral health status. The mean cumulative scores of OHIP-14 showed that expats from different nationalities had statistically significant differences. CONCLUSION: Overall the impact of OHRQoL was less among working expat population in Al Zulfi. Physical pain was the common dimension seen among all nationalities. Psychological discomfort and handicap dimensions of OHIP-14 were significant among the study sample.

Comparison of def index with Nyvad's new caries diagnostic criteria among three to six years old children in a school at Bangalore city.

BACKGROUND: Dental caries is a multifactorial disease with varying clinical picture and its diagnostic criteria is complicated, when initial lesion is considered. Hence, there is a need for an index which measures cavitated, non-cavitated, and initial lesion in dental caries. So, the purpose of this study was to compare the of def index with Nyvad's new diagnostic criteria. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 249 school children in the age group of three to six years were selected for the study from Sajjan Rao School at Bangalore city. Children teeth were cleaned and dried with cotton rolls and chip blower. The dental caries examinations were conducted under standardized conditions using plane mouth mirrors and explorers with the help of artificial illumination. The diagnostic criteria used were deft and d, e, and f component of Nyvad's new caries diagnostic criteria. Mann Whitney 'U' test was used to compare the two indexes at five percent significant level. RESULTS: The mean value for deft was 2.48 and the mean for d, e, and f component of Nyvad's new caries diagnostic criteria was 3.18 which shows statistically significant difference with P value of <0.05. CONCLUSION: The result obtained by Nyvad's new caries diagnostic criteria produces values much higher than those with def caries index system. Hence, Nyvad's new caries diagnostic criteria can be used to diagnose dental caries at the initial stages, which in turn will reflect exact prevalence of caries.

Palatal rugae in population differentiation between South and North Indians: A discriminant function analysis.

AIM: The present study is aimed at delineation of different types of rugae in two different populations and developing a discriminant function for the same. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 940 subjects were included in the present study. The sample consisted of 466 subjects from South Indian population and 474 from North Indian population in the age group of 18-23 years. Neo colloid Easy flow((™)) alginate impressions of maxillary arch were made and casts were immediately poured with Type IV dental stone. A sharp graphite pencil was used to delineate the rugae and patterns were recorded according to the classification given by Kapali et al. The association between different population and different sexes was analyzed with chi-square test and a stepwise discriminant function analysis was also performed to develop a discriminant formula. RESULTS: Wavy, curved and straight rugae were the most common forms in both groups. Chi-square analysis for association between rugae shape and population groups showed significant differences among all the rugae patterns at the P < 5%. Chi-square analysis for assessing sex differences in the rugae shapes showed significant difference in straight, unification and circular type. Five rugae shapes - curved, wavy, nonspecific, unification and circular - were selected for discriminant function. CONCLUSION: The discriminant function equation obtained from the different rugae shapes in the present study was highly accurate enough to distinguish the Southern and Northern Indian population with the classification accuracy of 87.8%. Thus to identify a specific population, separate discriminant function formulae have to be developed. Hence, the study of palatal rugae is one of the simple and reliable tools for population identification in forensic science.