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Background: Articaine is reportedly the local anaesthetic agent most used by New Zealand (NZ) dentists, but little is known about how and when NZ dentists use it. We investigated NZ dentists' use of articaine their practice. Methods: An online survey was conducted of NZ dentists who met the study's inclusion criteria and had email addresses recorded on the 2019 NZ Dental Council Register. This was supplemented by a survey link in an email to New Zealand Dental Association members. The survey gathered information on dentists' use of articaine. Results: A total of 213 dentists responded. Three - quarters of them reported using articaine every day. Three in five dentists use articaine as their first choice of anaesthetic. Two-thirds of the dentists using articaine said they would use it for an inferior dental block (IDB). The remaining third would not use it out of concern for the risk of persistent paraesthesia. Half of the dentists who participated in this survey reported using a mandibular buccal infiltration with articaine in preference over an IDB to achieve pulpal anaesthesia. Around 80% used articaine with pregnant patients, counter to current recommendations. Conclusion: Most NZ dentists use articaine to achieve pulpal anaesthesia in multiple circumstances and techniques. Despite current literature supporting the safe use of articaine for most dental procedures, many dentists doubt some of its advantages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to use longitudinal population-based data to examine the associations between childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and risk for adverse outcomes in multiple life domains across adulthood. In 937 individuals followed from birth to age 45y, we assessed associations between CSA (retrospectively reported at age 26y) and the experience of 22 adverse outcomes in seven domains (physical, mental, sexual, interpersonal, economic, antisocial, multi-domain) from young adulthood to midlife (26 to 45y). Analyses controlled for sex, socioeconomic status, prospectively reported child harm and household dysfunction adverse childhood experiences, and adult sexual assault, and considered different definitions of CSA. After adjusting for confounders, CSA survivors were more likely than their peers to experience internalizing, externalizing, and thought disorders, suicide attempts, health risk behaviors, systemic inflammation, poor oral health, sexually transmitted diseases, high-conflict relationships, benefit use, financial difficulties, antisocial behavior, and cumulative problems across multiple domains in adulthood. In sum, CSA was associated with multiple persistent problems across adulthood, even after adjusting for confounding life stressors, and the risk for particular problems incremented with CSA severity. The higher risk for most specific problems was small to moderate, but the cumulative long-term effects across multiple domains reflect considerable individual and societal burden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective The association between and commonality of risk factors for poor self-rated oral health (SROH) and general health (SRGH) among new mothers has not been reported. The purpose of this paper is to assess the commonality of risk factors for poor SROH and SRGH, and self-reported obesity and dental pain, among a population-based sample of new mothers in Australia. It also investigated health conditions affecting new mothers' general health. Methods Data collected at baseline of a population-based birth cohort was used. Mothers of newborns in Adelaide were approached to participate. Mothers completed a questionnaire collecting data on socioeconomic status (SES), health behaviours, dental pain, SROH, self-reported height and weight and SRGH. Analysis was conducted sequentially from bivariate to multivariable regression to estimate prevalence rate (PR) of reporting poor/fair SROH and SRGH. Results of the 1895 new mothers, some 21 and 6% rated their SROH and SRGH as poor/fair respectively. Dental pain was associated with low income and smoking status, while being obese was associated with low SES, low education and infrequent tooth brushing. SROH and SRGH was associated with low SES, smoking, and dental pain. SROH was also associated with SRGH [PR: 3.06 (2.42-3.88)]. Conclusion for practice There was a commonality of factors associated with self-rated oral health and general health. Strong associations between OH and GH were also observed. Given the importance of maternal health for future generations, there would be long-term societal benefit from addressing common risk factors for OH and GH in integrated programs., Author(s): Diep H. Ha [sup.1] , A. John Spencer [sup.1] , W. Murray Thomson [sup.2] , Jane A. Scott [sup.3] , Loc G. Do [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (Aff1) 0000 0004 [...]

Background: The first steps towards gender equity in science are measuring the magnitude of inequity and increasing awareness of the problem. Objectives: To describe trends in gender disparities in first and last authorship in the most cited dental publications and general dental literature over a 20‐year period. Methods: Articles and bibliometric data were retrieved from the Scopus database for the period 1996 to 2015. Two groups of 1000 articles each were retrieved: a random sample and another sample of top‐cited articles for each year. The gender of the first and last author of each publication was manually identified. When this was not possible, we used an online software platform (https://genderize.io/). Descriptive analyses identified the proportion of women first and last authors in both samples, stratifying by dental discipline and geographic region. Trends were ascertained by frequency metrics across years. Gender disparity was observed in both first and last authorship, with a larger gap being observed in the top‐cited sample. Results: Women led 28.4% and 20.3% of articles in the random and top‐cited samples, respectively. A similar pattern was observed for the last authorship group (22.1% and 16.1%, respectively). An increasing trend in the proportion of articles led by women over time was observed in both samples. This increase was larger in the top‐cited sample (from 15.0% in 1996–2000 to 25.1% in 2015) than in the random sample (from 26.3% in 1996–2000 to 33.2% in 2011). Conclusions: Clear gender disparities in dental research publications in the last 20 years were identified in both general and top‐cited manuscripts, across dental disciplines, across countries, across first and last authorship, and over time. It is paramount that actions are taken to attract, retain and promote women in science, as well as to monitor and ensure progress towards gender equity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Childhood caries is associated with poorer self‐rated general health in adulthood, but it remains unclear whether that holds for physical health and aging. The aim of this study was to identify whether age‐5 caries is associated with (a) biomarkers for poor physical health, and (b) the pace of aging (PoA) by age 45 years. Methods: Participants are members of the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study birth cohort. At age 45, 94.1% (n = 938) of those still alive took part. Data on age‐5 caries experience and age‐45 health biomarkers were collected. The PoA captures age‐related decline across the cardiovascular, metabolic, renal, immune, dental and pulmonary systems from age 26 to 45 years. We used (a) generalized estimating equations to examine associations between age‐5 caries and poor physical health by age 45 years, and (b) ordinary least squares regression to examine whether age‐5 caries was associated with the PoA. Analyses adjusted for sex, perinatal health, childhood SES and childhood IQ. Results: High caries experience at age‐5 was associated with higher risk for some metabolic abnormalities, including BMI ≥30, high waist circumference, and high serum leptin. Those with high caries experience at age‐5 were aging at a faster rate by age 45 years than those who had been caries‐free. Conclusions: Oral health is essential for wellbeing. Poor oral health can be an early signal of a trajectory towards poor health in adulthood. Management for both conditions should be better‐integrated; and integrated population‐level prevention strategies should be foundational to any health system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Appropriate screening and referral is important in delivering effective and timely orthodontic treatment. In New Zealand, dental therapists are usually the initial contact for oral health care (including the assessment of malocclusion) in child and adolescent patients.

There are few reports of the socio-demographic and malocclusion characteristics of those undergoing clinical orthodontic treatment in private specialist practice.

Dental caries is a chronic and cumulative disease but little has been reported on the continuity of the disease and its treatment through life. Group-based multi-trajectory modeling was used to identify developmental trajectories of untreated carious tooth surfaces (DS), restored tooth surfaces (FS), and teeth extracted due to caries (MT) from ages 9 to 45 years in a New Zealand longitudinal birth cohort, the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study (n = 975). Associations between early-life risk factors and trajectory group membership were examined by specifying the probability of group membership according to a multinomial logit model. Six trajectory groups were identified and labeled: "low caries rate"; "moderate caries rate, maintained"; "moderate caries rate, unmaintained"; "high caries rate, restored"; "high caries rate, tooth loss"; and "high caries rate, untreated caries". The two moderate-caries-rate groups differed in count of FS. The three high-caries-rate groups differed in the relative proportion of accumulated DS, FS, and MT. Early childhood risk factors associated with less favorable trajectories included higher dmfs scores at age 5, lack of exposure to community water fluoridation during the first 5 years of life, lower childhood IQ, and low childhood socioeconomic status. Parent self-ratings of their own or their child's oral health as "poor" were associated with less favorable caries experience trajectories. Children who had clinical signs of dental caries together with a parent rating of child's oral health as poor were more likely to follow a less favorable caries trajectory. Higher deciduous dentition caries experience at age 5 years was associated with less favorable caries trajectories, as were children whose parents gave "poor" ratings of their own or their child's oral health. These findings highlight the considerable intergenerational continuity in dental caries experience from early childhood to midlife. Subjective measures of child oral health are informative and might aid as predictors of adult caries experience in cases where childhood dental clinical data were not available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Children's pain in dentistry has undesirable short‐ and long‐term consequences; therefore, less invasive treatments merit consideration. Aim: To investigate procedural pain scores for two treatments for carious primary molars in New Zealand primary care. Design: This study was a split‐mouth randomised control trial, with secondary outcome analysis. Children (4–8 years) with proximal carious lesions on matched primary molars had one tooth treated with the Hall technique (HT) and one treated with a conventional stainless steel crown (CT); treatment type and order of treatment were randomly allocated (allocation concealment). The Wong–Baker self‐report pain scale measured pretreatment dental pain, procedural pain at each treatment and post‐operative pain. Results: Data were analysed for 103 children: 49 children had the HT first and 54 children had the CT first. Procedural pain scores did not differ by treatment type, with 71.8% and 76.7% of children reporting low pain for the HT and the CT, respectively. Fewer children reported low procedural pain for the second treatment than the first (p =.047). Most children reported low procedural pain for both treatments (58.3%), although 41.7% experienced moderate–high procedural pain with at least one treatment. Conclusions: The HT caused pain for as many children as the CT. There is an opportunity for better dental pain management in this setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]