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Background: Kanikkaran are semi-nomadic tribes inhabiting Mundandhurai hills in Tamil Nadu. Their traditional method of maintaining oral health, seclusion, ignorance, and limited access to dental resources has led to their poor oral health situation. Thus, the present study is designed to assess the oral health status of the Kanikkaran tribals residing in Mundandhurai Hill of Tirunelveli district., Methods: A cross-sectional epidemiological study was conducted among 907 Kanikkaran tribes in Mundandhurai hills. Mundandhurai Hills in Ambasamudram taluk of Tirunelveli district was selected by convenience method. World Health Organization (WHO) oral health assessment form and its self-oral health assessment form (2013) were used. Descriptive and inferential statistics were performed using SPSS version 23.0., Result: There is a significant negative moderate correlation between age and dental caries (r = -0.752). There is a significantly high risk among tribes with the primary school of education and agriculture as an occupation for periodontal disease (OR = 3.48), premalignant lesion (OR = 2.52), and non-carious dental lesions (OR = 3.14). Males with primary school education and agriculture as occupation had a significantly higher consumption of sugar and use of tobacco (p < 0.05)., Conclusion: Primary school of education with agriculture/labor as occupation had a high prevalence of DMFT, periodontitis, premalignant, and non-carious dental lesions. The results of the present study punctuate the necessity of raising awareness of the significance of good oral health through education and implementation of necessary dental services in Kanikkaran tribes., (© 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Craniofacial Research Foundation.)

Aim and objective The study aimed to assess and evaluate the efficacy of glass ionomer modified with chitosan-reinforced gelatin microspheres on bone formation. Materials and methods  The study involved three groups: Group I comprised plain glass ionomer cement; Group II comprised glass ionomer cement/gelatin (70:30 wt%); in Group III, glass ionomer cement/gelatin/chitosan (70:30%) scaffold were made into discs; the gelatin microspheres were synthesized by oil emulsion method. The synthesized scaffold was subjected to the following in vitro testing, Instron Universal Testing Machine (UTM), U3000, (Instron Corporation, Norwood, Massachusetts, United States) to assess compressive strength, scanning electron microscope (SEM) examination, and biocompatibility testing using hemocompatibility assay. The material was then tested in vivo; male Wistar albino rats, a total of nine animals, were utilized for this purpose. Three animals were used in each group; a femoral defect model was the model of choice for the experiment and the animals were observed for a period of four weeks, following which the animals were sacrificed and sent for histopathological analysis. Results The compression testing was carried out using UTM; test group I was 33 MPa, test group II was 2.3 MPa, and test group III was 25.75 MPa. SEM (JSM-IT800 Schottky Field Emission NANO SEM (JEOL, Tokyo, Japan)) analysis was done to observe the porosity of the fabricated scaffold with the average measurement of 0.12 ± 0.2 μm in test group II and 0.29 ± 0.4 μm in test group III. Hemocompatibility reports noted 0.4-0.8% lysis for the synthesized scaffolds. Histopathology staining of the femur defects showed that group III favoured bone formation. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and post hoc Bonferroni test was done on the data. The optical density values of the alizarin red stained slide showed statistical significance for group III. Conclusion In conclusion, the synthesized scaffolds are biocompatible, distribution of porosity and pore characteristics in the glass ionomer cement/gelatin/chitosan group is better than that of the glass ionomer cement/gelatin group. The glass ionomer cement/gelatin/chitosan group had better compressive strength and induced more bone formation compared to the other test group and the control. Thus, the novel glass ionomer modified with chitosan-reinforced gelatin microspheres has optimal properties to be used as a bone graft material., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright © 2023, Surendran et al.)