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Students, who may begin their dental education with sub-optimal oral self-care practices, are taught they should motivate patients to clean interdentally and reduce/stop smoking. To better understand their internalization of these concepts, students were surveyed at two distinct time points. Student cohorts from four Swiss universities were asked to complete an interdental cleaning/smoking habit questionnaire at the beginning of their pre-clinical education (n = 110) and again a year later, when beginning treatment of patients (n = 115). A local cohort (n = 28) was observed for comparison. All subjects participated voluntarily and anonymously. Interdental cleaning ≥ 3 times per week was performed by 48% first-year and 43% secondyear students in Basel, 60% and 76% in Bern, 60% and 70% in Geneva, 41% and 49% in Zurich, and 29% in the local cohort. Logistic regression using gender, class year and school as explanatory variables showed gender (p < 0.001) and school (p = 0.018) influenced cleaning frequency, with the odds being 3.16 [95% CI: 1.76, 5.67] times higher for females to perform interdental cleaning ≥ 3 times per week. Smoking was reported both years in numbers too low to analyze. Approximately 29% of the local cohort and 52% of the first-year students displayed an interdental cleaning frequency congruent with oral health recommendations. Adequate cleaning frequency increased for second-year students to 58%, which was not significant. Further study is needed to determine why more dental students do not themselves clean interdentally.

The aim of this systematic review was to compare the combination of amoxicillin and metronidazole or azithromycin when used as adjunct systemic antibiotics during the non-surgical periodontal therapy of chronic periodontitis. The databases Medline, Embase, Cochrane and Biosis were electronically searched. Additionally, a hand search was conducted up to24 October 2019. From 76 papers, only two papers could be included in the analysis. The calculated mean probability of having probing depth (PD) ≤ 3 mm after non-surgical periodontal therapy in moderate (4-6 mm) and deep (> 6 mm) pockets accounted for 7% and 6% for the combination of amoxicillin and metronidazole. For azithromycin it was 3% and 1%, respectively. The mean probability of persisting pockets ≥ 5 mm was 0 for moderate pockets with both antibiotic therapies whereas for deep pockets therapy with amoxicillin and metronidazole seems slightly lower. On the basis of two studies included in this systematic review, azithromycin as an adjunct to scaling and root planing in the non-surgical adjunctive treatment of chronic periodontitis seems to provide clinical results similar to the combination of amoxicillin and metronidazole. On behalf of patients' compliance and well-being, the use of azithromycin as an adjunct to non-surgical periodontal therapy of chronic periodontitis may be a substitute to amoxicillin and metronidazole. However, interpretation should be taken with caution, since the results are based on two studies only; thus, further clinical trials are necessary to underline or refute this trend.

The aim of this in vitro study was to investigate the change of erosive properties of apple and orange juice after dilution with tap water. Apple juice, orange juice and citric acid were assessed for pH and titratable acidity at different aqueous dilutions (100% – pure liquid, 60% – 3 : 2 mixing ratio, and 40% – 2 : 3 mixing ratio respectively). Thus, 72 bovine enamel specimens were distributed to 9 groups (n = 8 specimens per group), followed by 25 minutes of erosion by superfusion with the described test liquids according to group allocation. Erosive substance loss (µm) was determined profilometrically. The different substance losses within a dilution series were tested using the Wilcoxon rank sum test. The significance level was set to p ≤ 0.05. Erosive substance loss [µm] for 100% concentrations (median ± interquartile range) was highest for apple juice (5.7 ± 0.8), followed by citric acid (4.6 ± 0.4) and orange juice (1.5 ± 0.5). The dilution of apple juice (60%: 4.2 ± 0.7; 40%: 3.1 ± 0.5) and citric acid (60%: 3.7 ± 0.9; 40%: 2.8 ± 0.7) with tap water lead to a significant (p < 0.05) reduction of erosive potential in comparison to 100% concentrations. This effect was not consistent for orange juice, where significantly more substance loss was found for pure juice (100%) than for 60% diluted juice (60%: 1.1 ± 0.3, p < 0.05), but no significant difference was found between 100% and 40% (40%: 0.9 ± 0.6, p > 0.05), and 60% and 40%, respectively. In conclusion, dilution of apple juice with tap water led to a significant reduction of its erosive potential. For orange juice, the effect of dilution on the erosive substance loss was only limited.

There are many interdental cleaning aids available for patient use, including toothpicks, dental floss and interdental brushes (IDBs). Most are available in various shapes and sizes. The aim of this laboratory study was to evaluate and compare the cleaning efficacy of waist-shaped interdental brushes to those of cylindrical shape. Four groups of IDBs, ranging in diameter from 2 mm to 9 mm, were tested. To reduce production and material bias, all brushes tested were from the same manufacturer. Cleaning efficacy was tested on two different devices: 1) a geometrical model, using opposing rectangular blocks at separation distances of 1 mm to 4 mm and 2) an anatomical model, displaying a standardized maxillary segment from canine to 3rd molar. The surfaces in both devices were coated with a titanium oxide slurry, then cleaned under standardized conditions and planimetrically evaluated. The measurements took place after 1, 5 and 10 cleaning strokes, respectively. Both models showed significant superiority in the cleaning efficacy of the waistshaped brush (p < 0.001), at 1, 5 and 10 strokes. Based on the present results, it can be concluded that interdental brushes with a waistshaped form showed cleaning potential superior to their cylindrical-shaped counterparts, under standardized laboratory conditions.

Dental students in Zurich receive 8.5 hours of preclinical training in scaling/root planing. Dental hygiene students receive a multiple of this amount. This study was undertaken to assess the students’ acquired preclinical competencies and to what degree they may differ. 34 undergraduate dental students and 20 dental hygiene (DH) students from two different schools in Zurich were tasked with scaling/root planing a maxillary left canine, coated with black lacquer from the apex to ca. 5 mm above the cemento-enamel junction, after completing their preclinical periodontal instrumentation course. The students were allowed to use any instrument in their set (Gracey or universal curettes) for a 5-minute period. Positive (experienced DHs) and negative (laypeople) control groups performed the same task. After instrumentation, teeth were scanned and planimetrically assessed. The percentage of cleaned tooth surface was calculated and statistically analysed (Kruskal-Wallis rank sum test, Conover’s test for pairwise comparisons). The dental students achieved the highest median cleaning efficacy (80.6%), followed by the experienced DHs (65.3%), the DH students (62.0%) and the laypeople (26.7%). When split by schools, a significant difference in instrumentation efficacy by the student DHs was seen (p <0.001). Despite their limited instruction time, the dental students acquired preclinical scaling/root planing skills comparable to, or better than, DH students with more training time.

This study analyzed the anti-erosive effect of a self-assembling peptide fibre gel. One hundred and twelve bovine enamel samples were ground flat and subjected to a three times de- and re-mineralization cycle: erosion (5 min, HCl, pH 2.6) alternated with storage in artificial saliva under agitation. Then, samples were covered with different anti-erosive compounds (2 min): Duraphat toothpaste (DT), Elmex Erosion Protection Toothpaste (EET) or Elmex Gelée (EG) – all mixed with saliva (1:3) –, Elmex Erosion Protection Mouthwash (EEM), Curodont Protect (CP; self-assembling peptide gel) or MI Paste Plus (MIP). Untreated, water stored samples served as control. In experiment 1, half of the samples of each group were continuously superfused with HCl (pH 2.6, 60 μl/min, 8 min). In experiment 2, the second half of samples were subjected to eight cycles, each consisting of application of the respective anti-erosive compound followed by an erosion (60 s, HCl, pH 2.6), followed by remineralization in artificial saliva (45 min). Enamel loss was profilometrically determined. In experiment 1, EEM and EET performed significantly better compared to all other compounds. Substance loss of all other compounds did not differ significantly from control. In experiment 2, significantly better performance was achieved by EEM and EET. EG showed significantly lower protection than the control. All other applied compounds yielded no significant difference compared to control. Under the chosen conditions, the self-assembling peptide-containing compound showed no anti-erosive effect.