Dental caries, tobacco usage and associated risk factor of dental caries in patients visiting a government hospital in Western, Nepal.

BACKGROUND: This study was conducted to assess the prevalence of dental caries, tobacco usage, and associated risk factors for dental caries in patients who visited a government hospital in Western, Nepal. METHODS: This analytical cross-sectional study was conducted from January to April 2022. Patients above 18 years visiting the dental OPD of a government hospital, and who had provided informed consent were enrolled in the study using a convenience sampling technique. As the study also involved an illiterate population, in that case, informed consent was obtained from their respective legal guardian as well. A pretested standardized, close-ended questionnaire was administered by researchers to gather information regarding the associated risk factors and oral hygiene practices. Clinical examination was done for dental caries according to the criteria by the World Health Organization (WHO) using the "DMFT" index (WHO modification 1987). Bivariate and multivariable logistic regression was done and the odds ratio and p-value was calculated. For all tests, statistical significance was set at p < 0.05. RESULTS: A total of 219 participants completed the study with a mean age of 31.73 ± 12.46. The prevalence of dental caries and tobacco was found to be 80.36% and 5.02% respectively. Participants without health insurance had 2.35 times higher odds of dental caries (95% CI: 1.03-5.36). Not rinsing the mouth after eating sweets was associated with 3.07 times higher odds of dental caries (95% CI: 1.31-7.18). Those who hadn't visited a dentist in the past 12 months had lower odds (0.42; 95% CI: 0.18-0.94). Eating fresh fruit daily showed statistically higher odds (2.70; 95% CI: 1.04-6.99) of dental caries. Non-tobacco users had higher odds (14.19; 2.55-78.99) of dental caries. CONCLUSION: Dental caries is highly prevalent, while tobacco usage is relatively low. Factors associated with dental caries included lack of health insurance coverage, consumption of fruits once daily, recent dental visits within the past year, not rinsing the mouth with water after consuming sweets, and non-tobacco users.

A Comparative Study on the Effect of Different Methods of Recycling Orthodontic Brackets on Shear Bond Strength.

AIM: The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare the effect of different methods of recycling stainless steel orthodontic brackets on shear bond strength. METHODS: One hundred twenty human premolars extracted for orthodontic purpose were randomly divided into four groups. Standard MBT (0.022″) brackets were bonded on the buccal surface of all samples with light cured adhesive primers using an LED curing unit for 10 seconds. Group I was assigned as control, and the brackets of Group II, Group III, and Group IV were subjected to recycling by flaming, flaming with sandblasting, and flaming with ultrasonic cleaning, respectively. The recycled brackets were rebonded, and final debonding of all brackets was performed using a universal testing machine at a crosshead speed of 0.5 mm/min and shear bond strength was determined. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, ANOVA, and post hoc tests. The adhesive remnant index was evaluated using a stereomicroscope at 10X magnification. RESULTS: The highest shear bond strength was obtained with Group I (10.35 ± 0.46 MPa), followed by Group III (9.36 ± 0.55 MPa) and Group IV (5.97 ± 0.66 MPa), and the least value was obtained with Group II (4.30 ± 0.55 Mpa). Significant differences among the groups were detected by analysis of variance. Tukey's post hoc multiple comparison test showed that the shear bond strength of each group was significantly different from one another (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Shear bond strength of new brackets was significantly higher than that of the recycled brackets. Among recycled brackets, flaming with sandblasting provided adequate shear bond strength, flaming with ultrasonic cleaning provided a borderline value for clinical use, and flaming alone led to a significantly lower value.