Evaluation of oral health-related quality of life in children with acute lymphocytic leukemia/acute myelocytic leukemia: A cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVE: Chemotherapy and radiotherapy, used to treat childhood hematological malignancies (acute lymphocytic leukemia [ALL] and acute myelocytic leukemia [AML]) can negatively affect oral tissues and organs. This study aimed to evaluate the oral health-related quality of life in children with ALL/AML. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 99 children, including 49 undergoing ALL/AML (41 with ALL and eight with AML) and 50 healthy volunteers, were included in this cross-sectional study. The mean age of the entire study group was 78.63 ± 34.41 months. The mean age of the ALL/AML and control groups was 87.12 ± 35.04 and 70.95 ± 34.85 months, respectively. The Simplified Oral Hygiene Index (SOHI), the Decayed, Missing, and Filled Teeth (DMFT/dmft) index, and the Turkish version of the Early Childhood Oral Health Impact Scale (ECOHIS-T) were administered to all children. The data were analyzed using SPSS software (version 22.0). The Pearson chi-square and Fisher's exact tests were used to compare demographic data. RESULTS: The age and gender distributions of the two groups were similar. According to ECOHIS-T, the children in the ALL/AML group had significantly more loss of function (eating, drinking, sleeping, etc.) than those in the control group. CONCLUSIONS: Oral health and self-care were negatively affected by childhood ALL/AML and its treatment.

Relationship between the TAS2R38 and TAS1R2 polymorphisms and the dental status in obese children.

BACKGROUND: The sweet taste and bitter taste genes are thought to have an influence on obesity and caries, which are chronic diseases. OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study was to investigate the effects of the polymorphisms of TAS2R38 (the bitter taste gene) and TAS1R2 (the sweet taste gene), which are the most important members of the taste gene family, on the dental status of obese and normal-weight children. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study included 78 healthy children and 100 children diagnosed with obesity (5-16 years old). The anthropometric measurements and dental status of the children were evaluated. The decayed, missing and filled permanent/primary teeth (DMFT/dmft) index was determined using the standard methods recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). Blood samples were collected from all subjects and were analyzed via the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, with the use of specific primers for the genetic analysis. Five single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the TAS2R38 and TAS1R2 genes were investigated. The truncated Poisson and truncated negative binomial modeling approaches were used with regard to the data. RESULTS: The DMFT/dmft scores were low in obese children and high in children who did not sense the bitter taste (non-tasters). While obese non-taster children had increased DMFT/dmft scores, normalweight non-taster children had decreased DMFT/dmft scores. CONCLUSIONS: The alanine, valine and isoleucine (AVI) as well as proline, alanine and valine (PAV) haplotypes of the TAS2R38 gene are associated with the DMFT/dmft index and obesity. This study showed that the DMFT/dmft scores were decreased in obese children. According to the haplotype analysis of the TAS2R38 gene, the DMFT/dmft scores were increased in non-tasters. When differentiating obese nontasters and control non-tasters, DMFT/dmft increased in obese non-taster patients, while it decreased in control non-taster patients.

Trends and seasonality in public interest in dental trauma: Insights from Google Trends.

AIM: To assess trends and seasonal variation of dental trauma by using the Google Trends data. DESIGN: Google Trends was used to obtain relative search volume (RSV) of search terms such as dental trauma, broken tooth, chipped tooth, knocked-out tooth, avulsed tooth, and gum trauma. The search strategy was set to the time period (January 2004 to December 2019), region (worldwide, the United States, the UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Ireland, and Turkey), Web search, and all categories. Seasonal variation was evaluated using the cosinor analysis. RESULTS: The worldwide RSV values of broken tooth, chipped tooth, knocked-out tooth, and avulsed tooth have shown a general increase in recent years with an upward forecast line. The RSV values of dental trauma have shown a general increase in recent years with a plateau forecast line, and gum trauma has shown a stable trend with a plateau forecast line. Seasonal variation of chipped tooth, broken tooth, dental trauma, knocked-out tooth, avulsed tooth, and gum trauma was not found statistically significant in any of the countries (p > .025). The top related queries of chipped tooth and broken tooth were about pain, fix/repair, and cost. The top related topics for avulsed tooth and knocked-out tooth are about infant, child, toddler, and primary tooth. CONCLUSIONS: People's interest on dental trauma, broken tooth, chipped tooth, knocked-out tooth, and avulsed tooth has shown a general increase in recent years without showing a seasonal pattern. Healthcare professionals should pay more attention to people's concerns and informational needs.

Evaluation of the effects of different remineralisation agents on initial enamel lesions by scanning electron microscope and energy-distributed X-ray analysis.

BACKGROUND: This study compared the ability of four remineralization agents to restore demineralised enamel lesions in permanent human incisors. METHODS: In total, 40 teeth were included in the study. Two samples were obtained from each tooth. The 80 samples were divided into 10 groups (n = 8 per group). The right halves of the teeth were controls solely subjected to demineralisation and stored in artificial saliva for the duration of the experiment. The left halves of the teeth were remineralised using a 5% NaF-containing fluoride varnish (GC MI varnish; GC Corp.), a toothpaste containing casein phosphopeptide and amorphous calcium (GC tooth mousse; GC Corp.), a water-soluble remineralisation paste containing fluoride, hydroxyapatite, xylitol (Remin Pro; Voco), and ROCS remineralising gel containing Ca, magnesium(Mg) and phosphate (P). After 21 days of remineralisation, scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) assessments were performed, and the results were analysed using one-way analysis of variance. RESULTS: EDX analysis showed that the ROCS medical remineralising gel had the lowest Ca/P ratio among the groups (P = .04). Compared with the control groups, the Remin Pro and ROCS medical remineralising gel treatments produced significantly higher Ca/P ratios (P = .014 and P = .025). These results were statistically significant, and P-value <.05 was accepted for statistical significance. CONCLUSIONS: The group treated with a fluoride-free, xylitol-containing ROCS medical remineralising gel had the lowest Ca/P ratio. Compared with the control groups, Remin Pro and ROCS remineralising gel appeared effective for repairing initial enamel lesions.

Artificial intelligence system for automatic deciduous tooth detection and numbering in panoramic radiographs.

OBJECTIVE: This study evaluated the use of a deep-learning approach for automated detection and numbering of deciduous teeth in children as depicted on panoramic radiographs. METHODS AND MATERIALS: An artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm (CranioCatch, Eskisehir-Turkey) using Faster R-CNN Inception v2 (COCO) models were developed to automatically detect and number deciduous teeth as seen on pediatric panoramic radiographs. The algorithm was trained and tested on a total of 421 panoramic images. System performance was assessed using a confusion matrix. RESULTS: The AI system was successful in detecting and numbering the deciduous teeth of children as depicted on panoramic radiographs. The sensitivity and precision rates were high. The estimated sensitivity, precision, and F1 score were 0.9804, 0.9571, and 0.9686, respectively. CONCLUSION: Deep-learning-based AI models are a promising tool for the automated charting of panoramic dental radiographs from children. In addition to serving as a time-saving measure and an aid to clinicians, AI plays a valuable role in forensic identification.

Evaluation of the relationship between the Demirjian and Nolla methods and the pubertal growth spurt stage predicted by skeletal maturation indicators in Turkish children aged 10-15: investigation study.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate the possibility of evaluating the relationship between dental maturation and skeletal maturation without taking a hand-wrist radiogram outside of panoramic radiogram. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Panoramic and hand-wrist radiographs of 717 patients (383 girls and 334 boys), with ages ranging from 10 to 15 years, were evaluated. Dental maturity stages of the mandibular canine, first premolar, second premolar and second molar teeth were determined by Demirjian's and Nolla's methods. The skeletal maturation was determined by Fishman method and bone age was determined through the Greulich and Pyle method. RESULTS: All teeth showed positive and statistically significant correlations, the highest correlation was between the mandibular second premolar calcification stages and hand-wrist maturation stages. According to both dental age determination methods, mandibular second premolar was prominent in determining to the pubertal growth stages. CONCLUSIONS: There was a positive relationship between dental calcification stages and skeletal maturation stages, in the study population. Dental calcification stages of the second mandibular premolar showed the highest positive correlation with the skeletal maturation stages.

Carbonic Anhydrase VI Gene Polymorphism rs2274327 Relationship Between Salivary Parameters and Dental-Oral Health Status in Children.

The aim of this study was to research carbonic anhydrase (CA) VI one single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and its potential association with dental-oral health status (dental caries, Plaque Index (PI) and Gingival Index (GI)) and salivary parameters (salivary buffering capacity, salivary flow rate (SFR)) in children. A total of 178 children were divided into two groups: non-carious (n = 70, 34 boys and 36 girls) and carious (n = 108, 47 boys and 61 girls). The clinical evaluations were performed according to the decayed, missing, and filled teeth (dmft/DMFT) index by a specialist. Clinical parameters including PI, GI, and simplified oral hygiene index (OHI-S) were recorded. Salivary pH (SpH) was measured using pH paper. Blood samples and unstimulated whole saliva were collected, and SFR was calculated. The CA VI rs2274327 polymorphism was determined by a LightSNiP assay on the realtime PCR system. The frequencies of rs2274327 were not significant between groups (p > 0.05). There was a positive correlation between OHI-S and SpH in the carious and non-carious groups (p < 0.05). There was no correlation among the SNPs' frequencies and OHI-S, PI, GI, SFR, and SpH (p > 0.05). CA VI SNP (rs2274327) had no statistically significant association with OHI-S, PI, GI, SFR, and SpH in the children.