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Background: This study aimed to evaluate knowledge and awareness in a group of secondary school students on the subject of risk factors and strategies used in the prevention of oral cancer., Methods: The study took the form of a questionnaire which was filled in by a group of 106 secondary school students. The questionnaire was divided into 3 sections: the first analysed the general characteristics of the sample population; the second investigated their knowledge on the specific subject of this study; the last regarded exposure to risk factors and the role played by the dentist and family doctor in the prevention of oral cancer., Results: Of the 106 students taking part in the study, 42% were male and 58% female. 30% of the group felt it was not possible to prevent cancer in general. 6% associated cigarette smoking with oral cancer, whereas 15% identified alcohol as a risk factor for the same pathology. 30% of the group thought that it was not possible to prevent oral cancer. In the event of a suspected oral lesion, 44% would consult the family doctor, 25% would go to the dentist and 3% to a dental technician., Conclusions: This study highlights the need improve knowledge of prevention methods in oral cancer. Although young people do not have a high risk of developing oral cancer, they represent a means of conveying information in a social and familial context, thus enabling an early diagnosis, and they also represent the preferred target for primary prevention activities.

This work defines an "hazard index of unit" for the occupational transmission of the HBV to the aim to establish the priorities in the activity of promotion of the hepatitis B vaccine turned to health personnel. It has been estimated the prevalence of the potentiality infecting for the HBV in patients coming to various unit and the cover immunization against HBV in personnel and used the incidence of exposures to biological risk, always reported to the single units, found in the within of the activity of the Committee of Control of the Hospitals infections in our hospital. The analysis evidences three areas to risk: infectious diseases, general surgery and obstetrics and gynecology.

Objectives: This study sought to estimate the prevalence and related prediction factors for dental caries in 3- to 5-year-old children in Rome, Italy., Methods: From a sample of 2,025 children, 1,494 (73.8%) were included in the analysis. Children with at least two primary maxillary incisors showing evidence of caries experience were considered affected by rampant early childhood dental decay (RECDD). Behavioral and socioeconomic variables, mutans streptococci counts, diet, and nutritional status were investigated for their association with RECDD using regression analysis., Results: The prevalence of any caries was 27.3 percent, and was 7.6 percent for RECDD. Among all children, mean dft and dt scores per person were 1.1 (SD = 2.4) and 0.9 (SD = 2.3), respectively; among those classified as having RECDD, scores were 6.9 (SD = 4.2) and 6.7 (SD = 4.3), respectively. Children with RECDD had 56 percent of all the decayed teeth in the sample. Low and medium social classes, use of a baby bottle filled with sweetened beverages, high salivary mutans streptococcal levels, and malnutrition were directly associated with RECDD; milk and yogurt consumption and low Plaque Index scores were inversely associated with the condition., Conclusions: The high prevalence of RECDD suggests that the implementation of preventive programs should be a priority for dental public health. Because of its high prevalence among children as young as 3 years of age, preventive measures targeted toward pregnant women and toddlers should be developed and tested, while kindergarten students could be used for monitoring RECDD prevalence and for detection of communities at risk.

Background: Several factors such as toothbrushing, diet, acidogenic potential of the mutans streptococci strain and site of the carious lesion can modify the salivary Streptococcus mutans (Sm) counts. In the present investigation the effect of some behavioural, clinical and microbiological variables on Sm salivary counts was evaluated in a cohort of 12-year-olds., Methods: Forty subjects were examined by two calibrated examiners (GC, AL). The number of surfaces either decayed occlusal, decayed smooth or filled and the number of bleeding sextants, (clinical index for oral hygiene) were reported. Saliva was collected using a tongue depressor and was plated onto mitis salivarius agar with bacitracin and 20% sucrose. The presumptive Sm colonies were counted and the concentrations were logarithmically transformed. One Sm strain per subject was identified and the cariogenic potential evaluated as the minimum pH value recorded, during 5 hrs of incubation in 5% sucrose solution. The children's parents or guardians completed a questionnaire concerning the frequency of toothbrushing, the consumption of sweet foods and soft drinks and at what age the children started brushing their teeth. The effect of the explanatory variables on Sm count logarithms was evaluated by stepwise multiple regression., Results: The regressors with significant additional explanatory power were cariogenic potential (b = -1.335, p = 0.00001, R2 increment = 0.312), decayed smooth surfaces (b = -0.456, p = 0.009, R2 increment = 0.114) and bleeding sextants (b = -0.113, p = 0.004, R2 increment = 0.062), whereas the power of filled surfaces was marginally significant (p = 0.08)., Conclusions: On the basis of these results, it is suggested that acidogenicity is not only a cariogenic factor, but also a factor promoting colonization of oral sites by Sm, especially in subjects with a high frequency of sugar consumption.

The effect of the type of sugar used as substrate on the susceptibility of Streptococcus mutans to antibiotics was evaluated. Thirty strains, grown in excess of sucrose (s-MIC) and in excess of glucose (g-MIC), were tested for susceptibility to four cephalosporins. About 21% of the strains were sensitive in the presence of sucrose and resistant in the presence of glucose, whereas only 3% of the strains showed the opposite situation. The mean values of the s-MICs of the four cephalosporins were significantly lower than those of the g-MICs. These findings may also be explained by the synthesis, in excess of sucrose, of insoluble glucan by Streptococcus mutans which increases the interbacterial distance and promotes antibiotic diffusion. Given the susceptibility of Streptococcus mutans grown in excess of sucrose to cefotaxime and cefepime, these antibiotics may be used in the primary prevention of infective endocarditis, when subjects predisposed to endocarditis need invasive dental therapy.

The variations of salivary levels of total viable flora, oral streptococci, Streptococcus mutans, Lactobacillus and Candida in twenty-three subjects, over a 6-month period, trying to control many potential sources of variability, were investigated. Most subjects showed log count variations of the microbial parameters larger than 1. They were 95.6% (total flora), 91.2% (oral streptococci), 73.9% (lactobacilli), 60.8% (Strep. mutans) and 30.3% (Candida). The intra-individual fluctuations were larger than the fluctuations of the means of the counts between samples. This suggests that the shifts in levels of these micro-organisms were more frequent intra-individually than at a population level. Strep. mutans levels significantly explained Streptococcus-Oral (inverse correlation), Lactobacillus and Candida variability. The reported variations were due to technical and biological factors and suggest that, in order to assess the salivary level of some microbial parameters in an individual, the mean count and the range of counts, obtained by more than two samples taken under the same conditions, should be considered.

In the present study, the prevalence of traumatic injuries to anterior teeth in 824, 6- to 11-year-old, schoolchildren from Rome (Italy) and the relationship between injuries and predisposing factors were evaluated. Prevalence value of the study-population was 20.26%. This value is higher than those reported in surveys performed in Italian emergency dental services, but it is similar to those of retrospective studies from other countries. The highest prevalence was found among 9-year-old boys (33.69%); the M/F ratio was 1.64. The percentage of injuries with unknown cause (21.46%) was higher than that of other studies. This may be because most of injuries were slight (64.39% of injuries were enamel fractures) and it is likely that children and their parents were not worried about them, when they happened, so that they did not seek urgent dental care-this helps to explain the prevalence values of this and other retrospective studies, which are higher than those from emergency services-and, when interviewed, they did not remember the circumstances of the traumatic event. Using the Mantel-Haenszel's Odds Ratios stratified for age and sex, injuries were related to individual predisposing factors (overjet larger than 3 mm: OR = 2.57, p = 0.0001, short upper lip: OR = 2.23, p = 0.0001 and upper medial incisor protrusion: OR = 3.95, p = n.s.), but not to children's trauma predisposing behaviour (OR = 0.92, p = n.s.). Serious injuries, however, happened to children without predisposing factors and were caused by strong impacts, suggesting that individual risk factors may not affect these type of injuries.

The aim of the present paper was the study of prevalence of traumatic dental injuries to the anterior teeth of Italian schoolchildren. 519, 6- to 11-year-old children from two primary schools in Rome were examined, in order to evaluate dental injuries on canines and incisors. Traumatic injuries were classified according to Garcia-Godoy et al.; this classification is the most appropriate for retrospective studies. Dental injury prevalence was 21.0%, this value was higher than values shown by surveys made in the emergency services, but similar to those of other retrospective studies made in other countries. Male/female ratio was 1.69, statistically significant at 99% level. The age distribution showed that the higher prevalence was among the 9 year-old children (26.9%), the lower among the 8-year-old children (14.3%); the 9 year-old incidence value was the highest. 74.6% of the teeth involved were maxillary central incisors. Enamel fractures were the most frequent trauma type (67.0%), followed by enamel-dentine fractures (19.3%) and concussions (8.3%). No serious fracture was found. Play was the major dental trauma cause (64.2%), followed by sports (17.4%). 16.5% of traumatized children and their parents did not report the cause. Traffic accidents were not reported as causes. In conclusion, the high prevalence of dental traumas in schoolchildren, involving more than one fifth of subjects, is emphasized. Most of traumas were, however, slight, so that sometimes the cause was not reported. Serious dental injuries were more uncommon. Traffic accidents and violent impacts, which often cause these traumas, were also uncommon.

The Author reports more important phases from the beginning of housing to now: the indoor pollution time. Shelter is a basic need; humans require protection against the elements, somewhere to store and prepare the food, and a secure place to raise offspring; but indoor environment is not always safe. It has been known since Hippocrates' time that housing conditions affect health. Today situation starts from the enormous growth of urbanization. At 1888 in Italy first legislation on health, including healthy building, has been issued. The prevention policies were based on local hygiene regulations. At present housing programmes of who stress the problem in consideration too of the great part of time that, in industrialized Countries, we all pass at home, in the indoor environment. Following the general introduction the Author relates on the features of indoor climate, that may be identical that out of doors, or may be modified by heating, cooling, humidification and ventilation. Larger commentaries are reported on indoor pollution and its increasing by modern technology producing several new hazards. Physical, chemical and biological indoor air pollutants, with their principal sources and health damages associated, are analyzed. In conclusion the author shows some data from a research on indoor pollution in the houses of Rome.

An epidemiological study has been carried out an the scholastic population of L'Aquila (Abruzzo). This study had the aim of verifying possible correlations between feeding procedures and the outbreak of illnesses whose causes are unknown. The information was registered with the collaboration of the Medical Scholastic Service, in the period of May-June in 1988-1989, interviewing four hundred and seventy-seven mothers of students, the information regards the temporary period of 1973-1985. The results of their elaboration are as follows: 75.9% of babies took breast milk at birth and in following months breast feeding was the most frequent (34.8%). The procedure breast feeding-bottle feeding was carried out in 30.4% of cases and exclusively bottle feeding in 22.4%. The study has permitted to discover thirteen cases of illnesses whose cause are unknown among which a case of SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) in a newborn baby fed till eighteen weeks with breast milk and through twenty days before dying with undiluted cows milk. These illnesses happened in 13.4% of babies fed by bottle milk and diluted with running water; in 7.7% by cow's milk diluted with running water and in 4.3% by undiluted cow milk. Some Authors have suspected a relationship between bacterial endotoxin introduced by diet and baby illnesses whose causes are unknown. For this a quantitative determination of such substances is necessary in baby diets.

The Authors have studied the salient features of Community Medicine from three different aspects: 1) the theory of primary health care, as defined by the WHO, as a fundamental element in Community Medicine; 2) the characteristics it assumes in health planning in developing countries, where it is designed to meet the special local requirements; 3) the situation in Italy, where local medical care is regarded as a favoured sphere for projects, but where different planning and policies are required. From this study we have selected a number of ideas gathered during our experience in developing countries, which are suitable for adoption in Italy: the setting up of health care systems on global, capillary and participatory lines, aimed jointly at prevention, diagnosis and therapy: the use of scientific methodologies which are both thorough and accurate, and which are available for user countries; adequate personnel training; coordination between medical care and the working world; all this with the aim of enabling each and every individual to lead a socially and economically productive life, by ensuring the greatest possible physical and mental well being.

Polychlorobiphenyls (PCBs) have been shown to affect reproduction in experimental animals and in human beings following intoxication. The concentrations of PCBs and other organochlorine compounds were determined in blood samples from 120 women hospitalized for miscarriages and 120 full-term pregnancy controls. The average PCB hematic level (reported as Fenclor 54) was higher in women with miscarriages than in control women. No differences were detected as far as the hematic concentrations of hexachlorobenzene and DDT compounds were concerned. The reproductive history of each woman was assessed together with confounding variables on the phenomenon of miscarriage and the factors regarding environmental exposure and food intake. Food consumption did not indicate diet as the main source of PCB intake.