Deep Learning Neural Modelling as a Precise Method in the Assessment of the Chronological Age of Children and Adolescents Using Tooth and Bone Parameters.

Dental age is one of the most reliable methods for determining a patient's age. The timing of teething, the period of tooth replacement, or the degree of tooth attrition is an important diagnostic factor in the assessment of an individual's developmental age. It is used in orthodontics, pediatric dentistry, endocrinology, forensic medicine, and pathomorphology, but also in scenarios regarding international adoptions and illegal immigrants. The methods used to date are time-consuming and not very precise. For this reason, artificial intelligence methods are increasingly used to estimate the age of a patient. The present work is a continuation of the work of Zaborowicz et al. In the presented research, a set of 21 original indicators was used to create deep neural network models. The aim of this study was to verify the ability to generate a more accurate deep neural network model compared to models produced previously. The quality parameters of the produced models were as follows. The MAE error of the produced models, depending on the learning set used, was between 2.34 and 4.61 months, while the RMSE error was between 5.58 and 7.49 months. The correlation coefficient R2 ranged from 0.92 to 0.96.

Tooth and Bone Parameters in the Assessment of the Chronological Age of Children and Adolescents Using Neural Modelling Methods.

The analog methods used in the clinical assessment of the patient's chronological age are subjective and characterized by low accuracy. When using those methods, there is a noticeable discrepancy between the chronological age and the age estimated based on relevant scientific studies. Innovations in the field of information technology are increasingly used in medicine, with particular emphasis on artificial intelligence methods. The paper presents research aimed at developing a new, effective methodology for the assessment of the chronological age using modern IT methods. In this paper, a study was conducted to determine the features of pantomographic images that support the determination of metric age, and neural models were produced to support the process of identifying the age of children and adolescents. The whole conducted work was a new methodology of metric age assessment. The result of the conducted study is a set of 21 original indicators necessary for the assessment of the chronological age with the use of computer image analysis and neural modelling, as well as three non-linear models of radial basis function networks (RBF), whose accuracy ranges from 96 to 99%. The result of the research are three neural models that determine the chronological age.

Evaluation of selected dietary behaviours of students according to gender and nutritional knowledge.

INTRODUCTION: Nutrition is a factor influencing physical and mental fitness. In this study we examine the lifestyle of university students and its impact on nutritional errors. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the dietary behaviours of students taking into account gender and nutritional knowledge. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Using a QEB questionnaire, we were able to evaluate dietary behaviours and nutritional knowledge of respondents. Our analysis was conducted on data obtained from 456 students. RESULTS: We found that nutritional knowledge for women was 34.7% satisfactory and 34.7% good. In contrast, nutritional knowledge for men varied, amounting to 40.2% satisfactory and 25.1% good. The number of meals and their regular consumption did not depend on gender or the nutritional knowledge of students, however, significant differences were recorded for the types of snacks they eat. A greater number of women than men snacked on sweets and biscuits, nuts and seeds, while in the case of salty snacks an opposite trend was observed. A higher level of nutritional knowledge correlated with the number of students snacking on fruit and vegetables instead of salty snacks. Moreover, it was observed that health-promoting behaviours such as not adding sugar to beverages and not adding salt to dishes were more common with women and individuals with a higher level of nutritional knowledge. CONCLUSIONS: Women more frequently snack on sweets, biscuits, nuts and seeds. More men snack on salty snacks, add sugar to beverages and add salt to dishes. Individuals with insufficient nutritional knowledge more frequently snack on salty snacks rather than fruit. Students with insufficient nutritional knowledge more often commit nutritional errors.

The effect of girls attitudes towards the health benefits of food on selected dietary characteristics. The GEBahealth Project.

BACKGROUND: Dietary habits are formed at an early age and to a large extent they affect such nutritional behaviour in adulthood. Mothers in particular, influence family nutrition. In this respect, their knowledge, attitudes and behaviour about nutrition are responsible for the schooling of future generations. Many aspects of the link between food and health with nutritional behaviour in girls remain, however, unknown. OBJECTIVES: To determine the effect of girls attitudes towards the health benefits of food on selected dietary characteristics. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Study included 186 girls aged 13-21 years. Using a food frequency method the three dietary characteristics were obtained; food intake variety, fibre intake and fat intake, all of them expressed by a graded scale. Three validated questionnaires were used; FIVeQ, BSQFVF and BSQF. The girls attitudes towards the health benefits of food were rated from one of the survey's six parts, comprising of 8 statements from the Health and Taste Attitude Scale (HTAS) accordingly graded. Statistical analyses used logistic regression. RESULTS: The mean index of food intake variety was 28.7 foods/week (ranging 0-60), whilst the mean dietary intakes of fibre and fat were 16.7 points (0-36 range) and 18.2 points (0-52 range), respectively. Girls from the upper tertile with favourable attitudes on food health benefits had an odds ratio (OR) for adequate fat intake (<22 points) of 3.1 (95% CI: 1.28, 7.52; p<0.05), as compared to those from the middle-neutral attitudes tertile, with an OR = 1.00. The ORs for the relatively high food intake variety and acceptable fibre intake were 1.05 in girls from the positive-upper tertiles, which were not significant. CONCLUSIONS: The positive attitudes of girls towards the health benefits of food are conducive for making more favourable food choices and lowered dietary fat intake, however this did not significantly affect fibre intake nor food intake variety.

Evaluation of the Second Premolar's Bud Position Using Computer Image Analysis and Neural Modelling Methods.

Panoramic radiograph is a universally used diagnostic method in dentistry for identifying various dental anomalies and assessing developmental stages of the dentition. The second premolar is the tooth with the highest number of developmental abnormalities. The purpose of this study was to generate neural models for assessing the position of the bud of the second premolar tooth based on analysis of tooth-bone indicators of other teeth. The study material consisted of 300 digital pantomographic radiographs of children in their developmental period. The study group consisted of 165 boys and 135 girls. The study included radiographs of patients of Polish nationality, aged 6-10 years, without diagnosed systemic diseases and local disorders. The study resulted in a set of original indicators to accurately assess the development of the second premolar tooth using computer image analysis and neural modelling. Five neural networks were generated, whose test quality was between 68-91%. The network dedicated to all quadrants of the dentition showed the highest test quality at 91%. The training, validation and test subsets were divided in a standard 2:1;1 ratio into 150 training cases, 75 test cases and 75 validation cases.

Eruption Pattern of Permanent Canines and Premolars in Polish Children.

Eruption is a complex and dynamic process determined by both genetic and epigenetic factors. This process involves a number of changes in the tissues surrounding the tooth and in tooth morphology. The aim of this study was to analyze the eruption sequence of permanent canines and premolars on the basis of pantomographic images. The study material consisted of 300 digital pantomographic images of children in the developmental period. The study group consisted of 165 boys and 135 girls. Images of patients of Polish nationality, aged 6-10 years, without diagnosed systemic diseases and local disorders were used in the study. Results: The study has shown that the most common pattern of tooth eruption in the lateral zones is type A positioning of the lateral teeth, which is 4-5-3. This pattern is characteristic of both girls and boys. This pattern also occurs most frequently in the maxilla in both boys and girls. In the mandible, on the contrary, two patterns of lateral tooth eruption were predominant. In girls, types A and E/4-5-3 and 3-4-5/occurred in the mandible, while in boys, types A and C/4-5-3 and 5-4-3/were observed in the mandible. The process of tooth eruption is a recognized measure of a child's physical development, and pantomographic images are an effective and common diagnostic tool.

Robust Estimation of the Chronological Age of Children and Adolescents Using Tooth Geometry Indicators and POD-GP.

Determining the chronological age of children or adolescents is becoming an extremely necessary and important issue. Correct age-assessment methods are especially important in the process of international adoption and in the case of immigrants without valid documents confirming their identity. It is well known that traditional, analog methods widely used in clinical evaluation are burdened with a high error rate and are characterized by low accuracy. On the other hand, new digital approaches appear in medicine more and more often, which allow the increase of the accuracy of these estimates, and thus equip doctors with a tool for reliable estimation of the chronological age of children and adolescents. In this study, the work on a fast and effective metamodel is continued. Metamodels have one great advantage over all other analog and quasidigital methods-if they are well trained, a priori, on a representative set of samples, then in the age-assessment phase, results are obtained in a fraction of a second and with little error (reduced to ±7.5 months). In the here-proposed method, the standard deviation for each estimate is additionally obtained, which allows the assessment of the certainty of each result. In this study, 619 pantomographic photos of 619 patients (296 girls and 323 boys) of different ages were used. In the numerical procedure, on the other hand, a metamodel based on the Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) and Gaussian processes (GP) were utilized. The accuracy of the trained model was up to 95%.

Mechanical Properties of 3D Printed Orthodontic Retainers.

Orthodontic retention is the final important stage of orthodontic treatment, the aim of which is to consolidate the functional and aesthetic position of teeth. Among adults, fixed retainers made of different types of wires are the most common. The aim of this study was to analyse the mechanical properties of a new generation of fixed orthodontic retainers-printed by 3D printers. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was conducted using samples made of Nextdent MFH C&B N1 resin in the form of cuboid bars with nominal dimensions of width b = 3 mm, thickness d = 0.8 mm; 1 mm; 1.2 mm, length l = 30 mm for each type. The influence of the thickness of the retainers on their strength under loaded conditions was evaluated. Flexural strength, elastic properties, deflection, and creep were compared. The samples were aged in an artificial saliva bath at 37 ± 1 °C during the strength tests. RESULTS: It was shown that differences in the thickness of the samples affected their elastic and strength properties. The highest average flexural modulus, the highest deflection, creep, and strength was characteristic of the samples with the highest thickness (1.2 mm). Samples with an average thickness of 1 mm had the lowest modulus of elasticity. CONCLUSIONS: The mechanical properties of 3D printed retainers show that they can be an alternative to metal retainers and the procedure of making new retainers, especially when patients have aesthetic requirements or allergies to metals.