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Objective: To evaluate the influence of Bichat's ball removal on postoperative inflammatory parameters (pain, edema, and trismus), facial volume reduction, facial esthetic satisfaction, and oral health-related quality of life., Material and Methods: A single-arm clinical trial with 21 patients undergoing Bichat's ball removal. The following parameters were assessed at baseline and up to 3 months postoperatively: Visual Analogue Scale pain scores (0-10), rescue medication consumption, mouth opening, AM-Tr, AM-CEO, AM-NA, AM-CL, and AM-PM measurements, Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP)-14 QoL scores, and satisfaction with facial esthetics (FACE-Q Satisfaction with Facial Appearance Overall Scale (SFAOS). X 2 , analysis of variance-repeated measures/Bonferroni, or Friedman/Dunn tests were used (p < 0.05, SPSS v20.0)., Results: Peak pain occurred after 2 h and, 10 h later, the levels returned to baseline values (p < 0.001). Rescue medication consumption peaked in the first 24 h reducing significantly after 72 h (p < 0.001). Mean mouth opening decreased after 24 h and returned to baseline levels after 1 month, and all linear facial measures reduced significantly after 1 or 3 months (p < 0.05). OHIP-14 scores and FACE-Q SFAOS scores showed significant improvement after 1 month (p < 0.001), but patients aged > 25 years showed a significant reduction in FACE-Q SFAOS at the end of the study (p = 0.006)., Conclusions: Surgical removal of the Bichat's ball induces a mild inflammatory process controlled by rescue medication, significantly reduces face volume, and improves QoL and satisfaction with facial esthetics 3 months postoperatively. However, the efficacy of this procedure in patients > 25 years old is questionable., Clinical Relevance: Evaluate the effectiveness of bichectomy in terms of clinical effects and impact on quality of life., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Aims: To analyze the epidemiological profile and quality of life (QoL) of patients with special needs and overload their caregivers., Methods and Results: Health-related QoL was assessed in a quantitative, observational, cross-sectional study of prospective characteristics using the WHOQOL-BREF and ZARIT-22 questionnaires. This study included 122 patients were included; they were divided into patients without caregiver assistance (n = 63) who answered WHOQOL-BREF, 49 caregivers (n = 49) who responded to ZARIT-22, and 10 patients were secondarily caregivers of their parents and answered the ZARIT-22 + WHOQOL-BREF questionnaires. The WHOQOL-BREF general score was 71.94 ± 10.58, and patients born in urban areas and married had positive correlations (p < .05) with the QoL scores in the physical and social domains. ZARIT-22 scores showed an average of 58.63 ± 14.07. Data cross-checking revealed that patients of white races (p = .030) and who lived in urban regions (p = .003) generated less overload to caregivers., Conclusion: In the WHOQOL-BREF analysis, family income was a factor with direct impact, and all caregivers referred to moderate-to-high overload, with an increase in prevalence as far away from the service the patient resides., (© 2022 Special Care Dentistry Association and Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Background: Social isolation is ongoing worldwide with the aim to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus SARS‐CoV‐2 responsible for the COVID‐19 pandemic. However, social isolation leads to significant psycho‐emotional changes. This study aimed to assess the effect of distance education (DE) activities implemented due to social isolation, on the quality of life of undergraduate dentistry students. Method: An e‐questionnaire (Google Forms®) was administered to identify specific DE activities after social isolation and included the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL)‐Bref questionnaire. The e‐questionnaire was sent 14 days after the initiation of social isolation, remaining available for 48 hours. Cronbach's alpha and the means of the quality‐of‐life domains were calculated and analysed using the Friedman/Dunn and Spearman's correlation tests. After ranking, chi‐squared and Fisher's exact tests plus multinomial logistic regression were performed (SPSS, P <.05). Result: There was an excellent internal consistency of WHOQOL‐Bref (α = 0.916), and the mean quality of life (0‐100) was 70.66 ± 12.61. The psychological domain was the most affected (P <.001). The social domain exhibited the weakest correlation with overall quality of life (P <.001, r = 0.688). The use of the Internet, cell phones and streaming media increased, although all students had DE activities. In the multivariate analysis, attending virtual meetings (P =.028) and performing DE activities in an office/study room (P =.034) were significantly associated with good quality of life. Conclusion: Facing social isolation never previously experienced by this generation, undergraduate dentistry students are at risk of reduced quality of life. Therefore, performing DE activities through devices with teacher‐student interaction is a key coping tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]