Comprehensive evaluation of factors that induce gingival enlargement during orthodontic treatment: A cross-sectional comparative study.

BACKGROUND: Gingival enlargement (GE) is one of the most common soft tissue problems encountered during fixed orthodontic treatment. Aims: This study aimed to evaluate the factors affecting GE in adolescents and young adults, compared with their normal peers. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: This is a cross-sectional comparative study. The sample consisted of 329 subjects (ages 10-30 years) of both genders, which was divided into four main groups: The control group (G0) with no orthodontic treatment; subjects who underwent orthodontic treatment were divided according to treatment duration into G1 (4-12 months), G2 (13-24 months), and G3 (>24 months). The clinical examinations included the level of debris, calculus (simplified oral hygiene), and GE indices. Regression analyses were used to assess the GE association in all the studied groups. RESULTS: The mean GE score increased significantly with increased treatment duration (0.42 ± 0.29 for G0 and 1.03 ± 0.52 for G3). GE scores of the lower arch were significantly higher in the anterior segment than in the posterior segment among all treatment groups. Regression analysis revealed that gender, age, oral hygiene, and treatment duration had a significant effect on GE (P < 0.05), while angle classification, overjet, overbite, treatment stage, bracket type, and therapeutic extraction did not show significant associations (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: Gender, age, oral hygiene, and treatment duration were the most important risk factors for GE during fixed orthodontic treatment.

Perceived sources of stress amongst dental students: A multicountry study.

AIMS: The aim of this study was to explore the perceived sources of stress reported by dental students from fourteen different countries. METHODS: A total of 3568 dental students were recruited from 14 different dental schools. The dental environmental stress (DES) questionnaire was used including 7 domains. Responses to the DES were scored in 4-point Likert scale. Comparison between students was performed according to the study variables. The top 5 stress-provoking questions were identified amongst dental schools. Data were analysed using SPSS software program. Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used as appropriate. Logistic regression analysis was also conducted to determine the effect of the studied variables on the stress domains. The level of statistical significance was set at <.05. RESULTS: Internal consistency of the scale was excellent (0.927). Female students formed the majority of the total student population. The percentage of married students was 4.8%. Numbers of students in pre-clinical and clinical stages were close together. The most stress-provoking domain was "workload" with a score of 2.05 ± 0.56. Female students scored higher stress than male students did in most of the domains. Significant differences were found between participating countries in all stress-provoking domains. Dental students from Egypt scored the highest level of stress whilst dental students from Jordan scored the lowest level of stress. CONCLUSION: The self-reported stress in the dental environment is still high and the stressors seem to be comparable amongst the participating countries. Effective management programmes are needed to minimise dental environment stress.

Determination of occlusal vertical dimension for complete dentures patients: an updated review.

Determination of the occlusal vertical dimension (OVD) is an integral part of complete dentures fabrication. Due to the lack of teeth, the clinician faces the challenge of how to accurately establish the OVD of the new denture. Therefore, the purpose of this review article was to present, discuss and critique the available methods used in determining the OVD for complete dentures patients. This review identified two main streams to determine the OVD: (i) pre-extraction methods and (ii) post-extraction methods. For the pre-extraction methods, the OVD of the natural dentition is transferred to the new dentures mainly by intra-oral measurements, profile tracing and cephalometric analysis. The post-extraction methods rely on mandibular rest position, facial aesthetic appearance, swallowing pattern, craniofacial landmarks measurements, cephalometric analysis, phonetics and existing dentures. In general, all the available techniques have merits and are helpful for routine clinical use. However, they are empirical in nature, controversial and lack the scientific support. Further, there is no single accurate method for OVD determination. To overcome the limitations of the techniques, the clinician will benefit from applying combination of techniques to approximate the OVD.