Search

Social media platforms (SMPs) have become a popular portal for the acquisition and dissemination of dentistry-related information. The study aims to identify the pattern and influence SMPs for education and practice among dental trainees and professionals.A cross-sectional study involving dental trainees and clinical professionals was conducted based on a structured 20-item survey instrument among dental trainees and professionals. The validated questionnaire was circulated among six dental training institutions in India through the internet-based application Google form and achieved a response rate of 60%. The questionnaire focused on identifying the usage of social media in disseminating dentistry-related content. The data from responders were extracted, sorted, and analyzed for descriptive analysis of various factors.The survey revealed the most common SMP used for dentistry-related content as YouTube. The second most commonly used SMP was Facebook for professionals whereas it was Instagram for younger trainees. There was a highly significant difference between professionals and trainees concerning their sources of new information and the most commonly used SMP for dental education (p 0.001).There is a growing consensus among young dental trainees and professionals on SMPs being an effective open access knowledge center. The survey results call for the need for a scientific journal and dental schools to have verified pages in social media to act as flagbearers of evidence-based dental practices. The potentials of SMPs in providing open access information collection to wider viewership across the globe and being a digital archive in attractive audio-visual forms can be used to strengthen the conventional educational model and improvise clinical practice.

Background: Medical educational training activity has been going on and is gaining momentum and upgrading with time. One of the important means by which this is done in our country is the basic medical education course and presently its revised versions. Objectives: We have to assess how far we have come close to our target or goal, what are the things we have actually achieved by it and what we have to achieve as yet. Materials and Methods: We tried to do this assessment not by conducting an objective test among faculty or a performance assessment by students, but by a study conducted among the faculty by means of a questionnaire which uses faculty perceptions as recorded voluntarily as a means to our study. A few of the faculty chose to personally discuss issues addressed in the questionnaire. Results and Conclusions: Majority of the faculty had a positive opinion, and definitely agreed that it is very effective, but insufficient to achieve the high aims it purports to achieve, because of insufficient training time, not being able to choose deeper reinforcement of what is interesting them, and devoting time towards only topics that appear to be of equal relevance to all, and not actually helping them along in what is of specific importance their speciality. Most of them thought that sufficient reinforcement of medical education training is an imperative issue. Keywords: Medical education training assessment, Reinforcement of medical teachers training, Dovetailing of training to suite the teacher, Faculty perception.

Background: Since the time they were introduced, researchers have put in endeavours to better the delivery of the fluoride in the fluoride varnishes. With numerous fluoride varnishes accessible in the market today, each product claims of superior and enhanced properties. In the recent years, significant differences have been reported in these products in terms of cumulative amount as well as the amount of fluoride released. Aim: To determine the fluoride release pattern of four different calcium-phosphate based 5% sodium fluoride varnishes. Materials and Methods: This in vitro study was conducted at Department of Pedodontics and Preventive Dentistry, Christian Dental College, Ludhiana, Punjab, India for 6 months. 75 non-carious premolar teeth were randomly divided into five groups and coated with a different coloured nail varnish except for a 3mm X 3mm window on the labial surface of the crown. Four groups received fluoride varnish coating on this window while the fifth group served as the control. The various fluoride varnishes tested included MI VarnishTM(containing CPP-ACP), ClinproTM White Varnish(containing f-TCP), EmbraceTM Varnish(containing xylitol coated calcium and phosphate) and Enamel Pro® Varnish(containing ACP).Thereafter, the 15 teeth of each group were placed together in a plastic container containing 50ml of artificial saliva. After 1 day, 1 month, 3 months and 6 months, the teeth were placed in a new plastic container containing 50ml of fresh artificial saliva while the previous saliva sample was assessed for the fluoride released in it through the SPADNS Method. The data was compiled by using Microsoft Excel 2010 SPSS version (SPSS Inc., Chicago, Illinois, USA). Results: ClinproTM White Varnish exhibited the greatest cumulative fluoride release while MI VarnishTM exhibited the greatest substantivity at the end of 6 months. Three of the tested varnishes released increasing amounts of fluoride upto 3 months, thereafter, the values began to decline. Meanwhile, EmbraceTM Varnish released increasing amount of fluoride only upto one month, thereafter the values began to decline. Conclusion: The varying excepient ingredients could be held accountable for the different fluoride release pattern of the studied on calcium phosphate based 5% sodium fluoride varnishes.

Background: Numerous methods of age estimation have been proposed. The Demirjian method which was first applied in a French-Canadian population in 1972 is the most frequently used dental age estimation method. However, a constant over estimation using this method has been reported by numerous researchers. The Willems method is a modification of the above and was first applied in a Belgian Caucasian population in 2002. Several studies in the recent years found Willems method to be more accurate than the original Demirjians method. Objectives: The objective of this study was to evaluate the applicability of Willems method for dental age estimation in 6 -15-year-old North Indian children. Methods: The sample for this cross sectional study consisted of 390 OPGs of (215 boys and 175 girls) randomly selected from the patient records of a post graduate training dental college in North India. Exact chronological age of the subjects (in years and months) was calculated. The OPGs were used to score the seven mandibular teeth and dental age was estimated using the tables proposed in Willems method. Results: Significant correlation between the chronological age and dental age estimated using Willems method was observed in both males (r = 0.90) and females (r = 0.87). The mean difference between estimated DA and CA for males was 0.004 ± 1.08 years (P = 0.94). While for females, it was 0.031 ± 1.18 years (P = 0.72). The results showed no statistically significant difference between chronological age and dental age estimated using Willems method in the study population. Conclusion: Willems dental age estimation method without any modification can predict the chronological age of 6-15 year old North Indian children with good accuracy.

Bibliometric analysis is the quantitative analysis of measurable citation information of a journal. It unveils research topics, publishing trends, assess research impact, and productivity.The purpose of this study was to conduct a bibliometric analysis to identify and analyze the top 50 most cited articles published in theClarivate Analytics' Web of Science was used to search and identify the 50 most cited scientific papers of JCD. Each article was then cross-matched with Google Scholar and PubMed databases and the mean citation was derived. In addition, citation density for each article was derived to negate the age of publication factor.Shapiro-Wilk test and Kolmogorov-Smirnov test were done to detect departures from normality. For testing and determining correlations among several variables, the Spearman rank test was performed.The top 50 most-cited articles received a total of 6263 (Google Scholar), 323 (PubMed), and 2056 (Web of Science) citations. Major topics of interest in the top 50 most-cited articles were dental material science (Bibliometric analysis of top-cited articles gave valuable insights into journal's research history and progress of the journal concerning dissemination of scholarly work.

Background. In the modern tech-savvy era, scientific literature publication remains the optimal way to disperse knowledge, even if it has transformed from print to mostly electronic. With the new and improved publication methods, also come more scrutiny and analytic criticism of the scientific work. It becomes even more important in this context to rectify flawed scientific work responsibly. This present study was undertaken to help clarify the process and causes of retractions occurring in the dental community and analyse its reasons. Methodology. A total of 8092 PubMed indexed articles were scanned from the online libraries, and individually scanning for author details, place of study, subspecialty of research, funding, dates of original publication, and retraction notices issued along with journal specifics such as type and impact factors, country of publishing was compiled and analysed by two authors. The dataset was then collaboratively analysed using Panda’s Library in Python software as an analysis tool for data preparation and for frequency analysis. The estimates were presented as mean differences (MD) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). Results. The present study had a compiled dataset of 198 articles after screening and revealed that maximum retractions of dentistry-related research originated from India (25.3%) and, on average, took 2.6 years to be issued a retraction notice. We also deciphered that the USA retracted maximum dental articles (34.8%), and plagiarism was cited as the most common (38.02%) reason for doing so. The present study also brought to light that there was a trend for lower impact factor-dental journals in retracting maximum articles, most of which were nonfunded (62.16%). The results signify that 63.78% of all retracted papers continued to be cited postretractions. Conclusions. The retractions happening in the field of dental literature are currently too time-consuming and often unclear to the readers. The authors would like to conclude that the retracted papers were mostly from India and Spain mostly related to endodontics or prosthodontic research. All of this warrants the need for better scrutiny and reforms in the area.

Hunter's Syndrome or mucopolysaccharidosis Type II is a rare metabolic disorder caused by the deficiency of lysosomal enzyme iduronate-2-sulfatase. It results in progressive accumulation of deramatan and heparan sulfates in tissues leading to a wide clinical spectrum of systemic manifestations. This is a case report of a 6-year-old boy with classical features of Hunter's Syndrome who presented with a chief complaint of multiple decayed teeth. The purpose of this case report is to highlight the role of a pediatric dentist in the management of such special children with advanced dental care.

Background: Diabetic foot is a very common condition responsible for a major bulk of surgical admissions and out-patient visits. Lack of awareness of many factors influencing the incidence of this disease complex has led to loss of life, limb and quality of life. The site-specific incidence of initial site and initiating factor has not been studied in diabetic foot.Methods: A study has been done over a period of one and a half years which looked into the distribution of initial site of infection in diabetic foot and associated initiating etiologies. The study was cross sectional. History, general inspection of foot, dermatological, neuropathic and vascular assessments were done, in addition to making careful notes about the site and cause of infection.Results:60.7% of patients were >60 years old, 55.3% were male patients. 63.3% of patients had diabetes for more than 10 years. In 29.3% the initial site of infection was the big toe, 22% in the ball of foot, 18% in the other 4 toes together, 14.7% in the interdigital spaces, 10.7% in the heel and 5.3% in the mid foot. In most of the cases the etiology is multifactorial, trauma in 56%, musculoskeletal deformities in 47.3%, callosities in 41.3%, cracks and fissures in 16.7%, fungal infection in 7.3%, nail infection in 6%, no initiating introduction of infection identified in 10.7%.Conclusions: Awareness of and thus particular stress being place on identification of specific site and cause of infection should help in care of the foot in diabetics.

Background: Thyroid neoplasm includes both benign and malignant tumors arising in the thyroid gland. Although thyroid cancer accounts for less than 1% of all cancers, the challenge to clinicians is to identify the minority of thyroid nodules that harbor malignancy. There are a number of well-established predictors of malignancy in thyroid nodules. More recently a few studies have suggested that higher concentration of thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), even within the normal range are associated with subsequent diagnosis of thyroid cancer in patients with thyroid nodules and even higher serum TSH levels have been found associated with advanced stages of thyroid cancer. Methods: A prospective study was conducted on 220 cases without overt thyroid dysfunction attending Department of general surgery, Pushpagiri institute of medical science, Thiruvalla. Results: In our study incidence of malignancy of thyroid carcinoma was highest in patients with serum TSH concentrations, in range of 3.5 mIU/l-5.25 mIU/l, 55 patients out of 220 patients. Individually, incidence of papillary carcinoma (PC) (36/55 patients), follicular carcinoma (FC) (17/55 patients) and Hurthle cell carcinoma (HCC) (2/55 patients) were more in patients with higher TSH. So, from the study it can be clearly state that elevated TSH can be used as an independent predictor of thyroid malignancy. Higher TSH values are associated with papillary thyroid carcinoma.Conclusions: An elevated TSH can be used as an independent predictor of thyroid malignancy, especially for anticipating a probability of papillary carcinoma of thyroid.

Background: Diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) is a full-thickness wound, skin necrosis or gangrene below the ankle induced by peripheral neuropathy or peripheral arterial disease in patients with diabetes. There are well-accepted classification systems for DFUs, namely Wagner’s scoring system, university of Texas scoring system etc. However, only few are scientifically validated. Diabetic ulcer severity score (DUSS) introduced by Beckert et al consists of easily accessible clinical parameters which categorizes wounds into specific subgroups for comparison of outcomes.Methods: A prospective study was conducted on 250 diabetic ulcer patients, attending the out-patient department (OPD) of surgery, Pushpagiri institute of medical sciences, Tiruvalla.Results: Most common age group affected with diabetic foot was between 51-60 years (mean 58.9±10.2 years). Males accounted for 54% of patients. Most common ulcers were of score of 2 followed by score 3. Overall, 105 (42%) of 250 people had amputations in our study with majority undergoing minor amputation (30%) than the major amputation (12%). None of the patients with scores 0, 1 and 2 had major amputation. Probability of healing among the various scores were-100% for score 0, 97.9% for score 1, 83.4% for score 2, 17.7% for score 3 and 4.8% for score 4. Lower score is strongly associated with primary healing and higher score with amputations.Conclusions: DUSS system is an easy wound based diagnostic tool for anticipating probability of healing or amputation and need for surgery by assessing the four clinical parameters and combining them which is safe and easily reproducible.

Background: This was a report of a movement of the recurrent laryngeal nerve which can be demonstrated during thyroid surgeries which can be used for locating the nerve, or identifying it if already exposed and causing confusion with other nearby structures or when alone too.Methods: The nerve is located by observing for a superior-inferior movement of the recurrent laryngeal nerve transmitted by the loose areolar tissue over it and dissecting over this site to locate the nerve right underneath it. This was by direct observation of the movement which will be there so long as the thyroid is held retracted to the opposite side and is not separated from the thyroid at the tissues that constitute the condensation of pre-tracheal fascia called the Berry’s ligament.Results: The recurrent laryngeal nerve originates from the vagus and loops posteriorly and then upwards around the arch of aorta on the left side and the subclavian artery on the right side. When the thyroid gland is retracted away and thus the nerve put on slight stretch, a superior-inferior to and fro- movement of the nerve can be seen. This movement can be used for identification and dissection of the nerve along its course.Conclusions: A review of literature has been done and it is clear that this movement has not been hitherto identified or published

Introduction Superior adhesive strength in luting agents is of paramount significance in fixed partial denture success. In this in vitro study five cements were tested for retentive qualities, using both lathe-cut and hand-prepared specimens. Materials and methods A total of 104 freshly extracted tooth specimens were prepared. Seventy of them were lathe-cut and 30 specimens were hand-prepared to simulate clinical conditions. Five different cements were tested, which included a compomer, a composite, a zinc phosphate, and 2 glass-ionomer luting cements. Of the 5, 2 trial cements were indigenously developed by Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST), Trivandrum, India – a glassionomer cement (Chitra GIC) and a chemical-cure composite (Chitra CCC). All cements were compared within each group and between groups (lathe-prepared and hand-prepared). Results GC Fuji 1 (GC America) exhibited superior retentive strengths in both lathe-cut and hand-prepared specimens, whereas the compomer cement displayed the lowest values when tested. In lathe-cut specimens, statistical analysis showed no significant difference between GC Fuji 1 and indigenously developed Chitra CCC. Conclusion Both Chitra CCC and GC Fuji 1 have comparable strengths in lathe-cut samples, making Chitra CCC a potential luting agent. Statistical analysis reveals that all cements, except GC Fuji 1, exhibited a significant decrease in strength due to the change in design uniformity. The chemical bonding of GC Fuji 1 proves to be quite strong irrespective of shape and precision of the tooth crown. Clinical significance The indigenously developed Chitra GIC and Chitra CCC showed promising results to be used as a potential luting agent. How to cite this article Mathew J, Kurian BP, Philip B, Mohammed S, Menon P, Raj RS. A Comparative Study of the Retentive Strengths of Commercial and Indigenously Developed Luting Cements using Both Lathe-cut and Clinically Simulated Specimens. J Contemp Dent Pract 2016;17(8):663-669.

Background: Pilonidal sinus disease is a chronic infection of the natal cleft commonly affecting young adults. Out of the standard operative techniques, the Karydakis procedure is a relatively simple procedure associated with low rates of wound complications and recurrence. In this study we present a modified version of the Karydakis procedure to treat less extensive disease, which enables better skin closure without cavitation and tension.Methods: Patients with uncomplicated pilonidal sinus who presented to our centre during the period from April 2015 to March 2019 were prospectively enrolled. Patients with recurrent or complex sinus disease were excluded. In those enrolled, our modified Karydakis procedure was performed. In this method, after excision a flap of skin and subcutaneous tissue was raised to one side and sutured across the midline by advancement in layers.Results: 34 patients underwent our modified Karydakis procedure. 91% (31/34) of patients had uncomplicated recovery and could return to work after two weeks. There were minimal post-operative complications, in the form of erythema around the wound (8.8%), wound discharge (5.9%), seroma (5.9%) and infection (2.9%). No patient developed wound dehiscence or flap necrosis. There were excellent cosmetic results and no recurrence at one year post-surgery.Conclusions: Our modification of the Karydakis procedure is a simple and effective surgery for the management of uncomplicated pilonidal sinus disease which achieves good results.

Aims and Objective: Chemically modified and sandblasted acid-etched (SAE) mechanism leads to wettability of surfaces of dental implants which helps in osseointegration. The present study was conducted to determine the implant stability quotient (ISQ) of SAE and SAE chemically modified dental implants. Materials and Methods: The present study was conducted on 210 patients with 120 males and 90 females. Dental implants (Adin) with SAE (Group A) and SAE chemically modified (Group B) were inserted in patients. RFA was done immediately after implant insertion and after 1 week, 2 weeks, 6 weeks, 10 weeks, and 14 weeks. Results were statistically evaluated using SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 21.0, IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA. Results: Maximum patients were in the age group of 25–35 years (males – 65, females – 48), followed by 35–45 years (males – 40, females – 32) and 45–55 years (males – 15, females – 10). Maximum dental implants were given in the right side (88) in males than females (56). On the left side, maximum implants were given in females (62) than males (56). Maximum RFA value of 86.2 and minimum value of 44.6 were observed in SAE dental implants (A). The maximum mean RFA value in chemically modified implants SAE (B) was 89.4 and minimum was 32.5. Conclusion: It was observed that surface treatment of dental implants shows higher implant–bone osseointegration. There is fastest osseointegration in implants with hydrophilic surfaces than those with SAE surfaces. ISQ was higher than 75 in both groups, which indicate higher implant stability.

The Beaconholic is an iphone operating system (iOS) application that provides a link between the Reminders on phone and Beacons in the real world. iBeacon is a trending technology that provides new location awareness possibilities for applications. Leveraging Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), an iBeacon technology enabled device that can be used to establish a region around an object and identify whenever the device enters or exits the region. In this paper we introduce a reminder application which monitors our location and provide us with the corresponding reminders which we have already fed into the application. The iOS device can alert applications when we approach or leave a location using iBeacon. Each time the iOS device enters the beaconic region, the application notifies the user with the corresponding reminders. Thus this application implements Internet of things with the communication of an iBeacon with an iOS device. We envision that the application of the proposed method lead to significant time conservation and automation of the reminders.

The increasing growth of Android phones, due to its openness and popularity also calls for the increase in attacks. A very keen and intellectual study proves that Android users can easily be hacked with the existing single time permission approval system. Once approved, an application can access all the resources requested as permissions, at any time according to the code integrated into it. The permissions shown at installation time totally depends on the user's privacy preference. An application rated riskier by a particular privacy rating software may not be riskier in the eyes of a user who is already decided to install this application. So in order to provide a clear cut idea about how an application will harm him or what are the risks involved in an application compared to the other top rated clean applications in the same category, we propose a security system, which involves a combination of static and dynamic risk analysis of Android applications. The proposed system allows its users to install a riskier application rated by static analyzer, and review it with a help of dynamic analyzer, which monitors application activity handling permissions.

Liposarcomas constitute approximately 15% of all sarcomas among the mesenchymal neoplasms. They usually arise in the lower extremities or in the retroperitoneum but have been reported in sites such as abdomen, vulva and buttocks. Primary mediastinal liposarcomas are rare with less than 100 cases reported worldwide so far. We present an interesting case of primary myxoid LPS of the posterior mediastinum with presenting complaints, imaging diagnosis and management with a review of the current literature.

Inflammation of the vulva can present as a manifestation of a localized problem or as part of a systemic disorder. Granulomatous vulvitis is a rare inflammatory condition that has histologic similarities to Crohn disease. Clinically, it presents with painless, chronic relapsing erythema, and edema, typically affecting the genital area. We report a case of extensive granulomatous vulvitis in a patient with no gastrointestinal evidence of Crohn disease. We describe difficulties with diagnosis and limitations in the treatment of isolated vulval granulomatous disease and aim to promote earlier recognition of the disease.

Forty percent of patients with autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) present with acute jaundice/hepatitis. Such patients, when treated promptly, are thought to have a good prognosis.The objective of this study was to describe the natural history of AIH in patients presenting with jaundice/hepatitis and to determine whether the diagnosis could have been made earlier, before presentation.This study is a retrospective review of 2249 consecutive patients who presented with jaundice to the Jaundice Hotline clinic, Truro, Cornwall, UK, over 15 years (1998-2013) and includes a review of the laboratory data over a 23-year period (1990-2013).Of the 955 patients with hepatocellular jaundice, 47 (5%) had criterion-referenced AIH: 35 female and 12 male, the median age was 65 years (range 15-91 years); the bilirubin concentration was 139 μmol/l (range 23-634 μmol/l) and the alanine transaminase level was 687 IU/l (range 22-2519 IU/l). Among the patients, 23/46 (50%) were cirrhotic on biopsy; 11/47 (23%) died: median time from diagnosis to death, 5 months (range 1-59); median age, 72 years (range 59-91 years). All 8/11 patients who died of liver-related causes were cirrhotic. Weight loss (P=0.04) and presence of cirrhosis (P=0.004) and varices (P=0.015) were more common among those who died. Among patients who died from liver-related causes, 6/8 (75%) died less than 6 months from diagnosis. Cirrhosis at presentation and oesophageal varices were associated with early liver-related deaths (P=0.011, 0.002 respectively). Liver function test results were available in 33/47 (70%) patients before presentation. Among these patients, 16 (49%) had abnormal alanine transaminase levels previously, and eight (50%) were cirrhotic at presentation.AIH presenting as jaundice/hepatitis was mainly observed in older women: 50% of the patients were cirrhotic, and liver-related mortality was high. Some of these deaths were potentially preventable by earlier diagnosis, as the patients had abnormal liver function test results previously, which had not been investigated.

Leukemia is a malignancy of the bone marrow and blood. It is the most common childhood cancer in India. Advances in the treatment regimens have greatly increased the chances of survival. Both the disease and its treatment change the oral environment. In some cases, oral manifestations are the presenting feature of the disease and it will be the dentist′s responsibility to identify the underlying disorder and guide the diagnosis of the patient. Hence, the aim of present article is to review the literature concerning the oral health of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).