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Health professionals who work with women in pregnancy and postpartum are rarely educated in psychosocial aspects of body image and mental health, despite this being a time of significant bodily change for women. This study presents the results of a needs assessment to determine the extent, nature, and format of health professional education in relation to body image and perinatal mental health. Participants were N = 257 health professionals (89% female) from 16 European countries, recruited through the authors professional networks, who completed an online survey about their existing knowledge and experience, and preferences for further education. Current knowledge about body image was low, and open-ended comments indicated that body image was integrated into pregnancy and postpartum care within the context of encouraging weight loss. Health professionals saw opportunities for the inclusion of conversations about body image and mental health within their clinical care and a need for training about 'what to say' to mothers, as well as recommendations for diagnostic and referral pathways, and more general information about postpartum body image and mental health that could inform their practice. This research indicates the need for health professional education in relation to perinatal body image and mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To assess the effect of daily consumption of erythritol, xylitol, and sorbitol candies on caries development in mixed dentition during a 3-year intervention and 3 years after the intervention.Methods: 485 Estonian first- and second-grade primary school children participated. Children were randomly allocated to an erythritol, xylitol, or sorbitol (control) group. Polyol-containing candies were administered on school days with a daily polyol consumption of 3 × 2.5 g. Yearly, caries development was assessed by calibrated dentists using the ICDAS criteria. Six years after initiation of the study and 3 years after cessation of daily polyol consumption, 420 participants were re-examined to identify potential long-term effects of polyol consumption. Survival curves were generated at the end of the intervention period and 3 years after intervention. The model included age of the subjects, schools, tooth surface ages and years of surface exposure to intervention. ICDAS scoring system-based events included enamel/dentin caries development, dentin caries development, increase in caries score, and dentist intervention.Results: At the end of the intervention, time to enamel/dentin caries development, dentin caries development, increase in caries score, and dentist intervention were significantly longer in the erythritol group as compared to the sorbitol group. Except for increase in caries score, all effects persisted 3 years after cessation of daily polyol consumption.Conclusions: A caries-preventive effect of 3-year erythritol consumption as compared to sorbitol was established in children with mixed dentition. The effect persisted up to 3 years after the end of the intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. This study aims to assess the caries experience among first- and second-grade children in the elementary schools of southeastern Estonia. Materials and methods. A representative sample of 485 children was studied. The mean age of children in the first grade was 7.8 years (SD = 0.35) and in the second grade 8.8 years (0.38). The clinical examinations using ICDAS criteria were completed by four calibrated examiners. The inter- and intra-examiner consistency of the examiners was high (surface and tooth-based kappa >0.9). Results. The mean caries experience of dentinal caries lesions was 0.8 (D4-6MFT) and 1.6 (D4-6MFS) among the first graders and 1.1 (D4-6MFT) and 1.6 (D4-6MFS) among the second graders. The mean caries enamel lesions among the first graders was 1.6 (D1-3T) and 2.2 (D1-3S) and among the second graders 2.1 and 3.0, respectively. The most affected surfaces were the occlusal surfaces of the lower first molars. The prevalence of sealants was very low-only 2.4% of the first molars were sealed among the first graders and 3.9% among the second graders. There were no statistically significant differences in caries experience or in the provision of restorative treatment between the schools. Conclusions. Caries experience is high in southeastern Estonia. Preventive programs are urgently needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Caries has traditionally been assessed with WHO criteria including only obvious caries lesions. ICDAS has been developed to detect also the enamel caries lesions. This study aims to study caries and the associations of the number of caries lesions between the permanent and primary molars with ICDAS in the mixed dentition of the first and second grade primary school children. The clinical examinations of 485 children were conducted by four examiners with high reproducibility (inter- and intraexaminer kappas>0.9). The mean number of caries lesions—especially dentine caries—seemed to be higher in the second primary molars than in the first permanent molars. There were significant correlations between the number of lesions on occlusal and lingual surfaces between the primary and permanent molars. Enamel caries lesions, restorations, and caries experience did not increase according to age. Therefore, caries might be increasing in this population. As a conclusion, ICDAS recording seems to give appropriate information from the occurrence of caries lesions and its correlations between the primary and permanent teeth and surfaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The aim was to (1) assess the proportion of children with dental fear, to (2) compare results obtained by a single fear question to those obtained by using a set of 11 fear questions, to (3) study associations between children's dental fear and their dental health, and to (4) compare children's dental fears to those of their parents., Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional sample of 344 8-10-year-old schoolchildren from South Estonian primary schools participated. Children's fears were measured with the modified Dental Subscale of the Children's Fear Survey Schedule (CFSS-DS). The scale includes 11 fear items amongst which five represent less invasive (noninvasive items), another five invasive aspects of dental treatment (invasive items), and one question represents general dental fear of the child. In addition, two questions were included to assess parental dental fear. The dental health of children was examined using the International Caries Detection and Assessment System (ICDAS) criteria., Results: The proportion of children with general dental fear was 6.1%. The mean score of noninvasive fears was higher among the youngest than among the oldest age group (p<0.02). Children whose dmft/DMFT-scores were >0 had higher fear scores than those whose dmft/DMFT-scores were =0 (p<0.01). A total of 16.8% and 15.7% of mothers and fathers afraid of dentistry in general. There were strong correlations between children's dental fears and maternal (p<0.01), and paternal (p<0.01) dental fear., Conclusions: Children's fears were strongly associated with untreated caries and experience of dental treatment, and with parental fears.