Search

Background: White spot lesions (WSL) frequently occur as side-effect of multibracket appliance treatment. The clinical effects of local fluoridation on post-orthodontic WSL and oral health development are however inconclusive., Objective: In vivo monitoring of clinical WSL and oral health changes in response to weekly 1.25 per cent fluoride gel application after multibracket appliance treatment., Trial Design: Randomized, single-centre, double-blind, parallel-group, placebo-controlled study., Participants: Patients with not less than 1 WSL (modified score 1 or 2) on not less than 1 upper front teeth after debonding., Interventions: Professional fluoride/placebo gel application during weeks 1-2; self-administered home application (weeks 3-24)., Outcomes: Clinical evaluation of WSL index, lesion activity, plaque index, gingival bleeding index, and decayed, missing, and filled teeth index as well as saliva buffer capacity and stimulated salivary flow rate (T0-T5)., Randomization: Random assignment to test (n = 23) or placebo group (n = 23) using a sequentially numbered list (random allocation sequence generated for 50 subjects in 25 blocks of 2 subjects each)., Recruitment: The clinical study duration lasted from March 2011 to September 2013., Blinding: Unblinding was performed after complete data evaluation., Numbers Analysed: Intention-to-treat analysis set comprised 39 participants (test: n = 21, placebo: n = 18)., Outcome: No clinical parameter except stimulated salivary flow rate (fluoride group: 1.1ml/min, placebo group: 0.74ml/min; P = 0.022) showed a statistically significant group difference after 24 weeks., Harms: Several adverse events occurred similarly frequent in both groups; none was classified as possibly related to the study product., Limitations: The number of dropouts was higher than expected and the socio-economic status was not assessed. Furthermore, the unknown level of compliance during the home application phase must be considered as limitation., Conclusion: Based on the results of this study, no clinical effect of post-orthodontic high-dose fluoride treatment on WSL and oral health changes could be detected., Registration: The study was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (Identifier: NCT01329731)., Protocol: The protocol wasn't published before trial commencement., (© The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Orthodontic Society. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com)

Background: White spot lesions (WSLs) are a frequent side-effect of multibracket appliance treatment. The effect of local fluoridation on post-orthodontic WSL is however inconclusive., Objective: Assessment of WSL changes in response to weekly 1.25 per cent fluoride gel application after multibracket appliance treatment., Trial Design: Randomized, single-centre, double-blind, parallel-group, placebo-controlled study., Participants: Patients with not less than 1 WSL (modified score 1 or 2) on not less than 1 upper front teeth after debonding., Interventions: Professional fluoride/placebo gel application during weeks 1-2; self-administered home application (weeks 3-24)., Outcomes: Photographic WSL assessment (dimension and luminance) of the upper front teeth (T0-T5)., Randomization: Random assignment to test (n = 23) or placebo group (n = 23) using a sequentially numbered list (random allocation sequence generated for 50 subjects in 25 blocks of 2 subjects each)., Recruitment: The clinical study duration lasted from March 2011 to September 2013., Blinding: Unblinding was performed after complete data evaluation., Numbers Analysed: Intent-to-treat analysis set comprising 39 participants (test: n = 21, placebo: n = 18)., Outcome: Dimensional WSL quantification showed limited reliability. Luminance improvement (%) of WSL, however, was seen after 6 months (test/placebo: tooth 12, 24.8/18.0; tooth 11, 38.4/35.4; tooth 21, 39.6/38.3; and tooth 22, 15.2/25.0). No statistically significant group difference existed. Data suggest that WSLs are difficult to measure with respect to reliability and repeatability and methods for monitoring WSLs in clinical trials require improvement/validation., Harms: Similar adverse events occurred in both groups; none was classified as possibly related to the study product., Limitations: The number of dropouts was higher than expected and the socio-economic status was not assessed. Furthermore, the unknown level of compliance during the home application phase must be considered as limitation., Conclusion: Based on the results of this study, no difference could be detected with respect to the development of WSL under post-orthodontic high-dose fluoride treatment., Registration: The study was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (Identifier: NCT01329731)., Protocol: The protocol wasn't published before trial commencement., (© The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Orthodontic Society. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com)

The 2005 National HIV/AIDS and Reproductive Health Survey (NARHS) in Nigeria provides evidence that multiple sexual partnering increases the risk of contracting HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. Therefore, partner reduction is one of the prevention strategies to accomplish the Millenium Development Goal of halting and reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS. We consider the numbers of girlfriends, casual, and commercial partners of heterosexual men, reported in the NARHS study, as observed indicators of their latent attitude toward multiple partnering. To explore the influence of risk factors on this latent variable, we extend semiparametric methodology for latent variable models with continuous and categorical indicators to include count indicators. This allows us to simultaneously analyze linear and nonlinear effects of covariates, such as sociodemographic factors and knowledge about HIV/AIDS, on attitude toward multiple sexual partnering, which in turn influences the observable count indicators. The results provide insights for policy makers who are aiming to reduce the spread of HIV and AIDS among the Nigerian populace through partner reduction., (© 2010, The International Biometric Society.)

This paper discusses marginal regression for repeated ordinal measurements that are isotonic over time. Such data are often observed in longitudinal studies on healing processes in which, due to recovery, the status of patients only improves or remains the same. We show how this prior information can be used to construct appropriate and parsimoniously parametrized marginal models. As a second aspect, we also incorporate nonparametric fitting of covariate effects via a penalized quasi-likelihood or general estimating equation approach. We illustrate our methods by an application to sports-related injuries.