Diet's Cariogenicity and Healthfulness Index (DCHI) - A Novel, Comprehensive Index for Children.

BACKGROUND: Realistic and tailored dietary advice plays a vital role in Preventive Dentistry. An appropriate diet analysis forms the basis for precise dietary advice. Analysis of diet for its cariogenicity is a complex process. Performing a meaningful diet analysis is a challenge in routine clinical practice. Currently, very few tools are available for clinicians to assess children's diet relating to caries risk. The current scientific paper presents a novel index that assesses the cariogenicity and healthfulness of a child's diet objectively and guides the professional to achieve pragmatic diet modification in the prevention of dental caries. METHODS: Multi-disciplinary teams with a sample study population were involved in the initial structuring of Diet's Cariogenicity and Healthfulness Index. To obtain cut-off values for cariogenicity of diet, a study was carried out with a sample of 774 children correlating diet diary with caries status. For statistics, the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve closest to the ideal of 100% sensitivity and 100% specificity was applied. RESULTS: ROC curve of 22.5 were plotted for diet scores for its cariogenicity. The sensitivity, specificity, and area under the curve of these cut-off values were 70 and 95, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The current scientific paper presents a novel Diet's Cariogenicity and Healthfulness Index that assesses the cariogenicity and healthfulness of a child's diet objectively to guide the professional to achieve a logical diet modification.

Identification of Healthy Tissue from Malignant Tissue in Surgical Margin Using Raman Spectroscopy in Oral Cancer Surgeries.

Accurate identification of tissue types in surgical margins is essential for ensuring the complete removal of cancerous cells and minimizing the risk of recurrence. The objective of this study was to explore the clinical utility of Raman spectroscopy for the detection of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) in both tumor and healthy tissues obtained from surgical resection specimens during surgery. This study enrolled a total of 64 patients diagnosed with OSCC. Among the participants, approximately 50% of the cases were classified as the most advanced stage, referred to as T4. Raman experiments were conducted on cryopreserved tissue samples collected from patients diagnosed with OSCC. Prominent spectral regions containing key oral biomarkers were analyzed using the partial least squares-support vector machine (PLS-SVM) method, which is a powerful multivariate analysis technique for discriminant analysis. This approach effectively differentiated OSCC tissue from non-OSCC tissue, achieving a sensitivity of 95.7% and a specificity of 93.3% with 94.7% accuracy. In the current study, Raman analysis of fresh tissue samples showed that OSCC tissues contained significantly higher levels of nucleic acids, proteins, and several amino acids compared to the adjacent healthy tissues. In addition to differentiating between OSCC and non-OSCC tissues, we have also explored the potential of Raman spectroscopy in classifying different stages of OSCC. Specifically, we have investigated the classification of T1, T2, T3, and T4 stages based on their Raman spectra. These findings emphasize the importance of considering both stage and subsite factors in the application of Raman spectroscopy for OSCC analysis. Future work will focus on expanding our tissue sample collection to better comprehend how different subsites influence the Raman spectra of OSCC at various stages, aiming to improve diagnostic accuracy and aid in identifying tumor-free margins during surgical interventions.