Context: Early childhood caries (ECC) is a significant health problem worldwide. There is a general lack of knowledge concerning the ECC in the parents, particularly among mothers who are the primary source of knowledge for their kids. Aims: The aim of this study was to design an information leaflet on ECC and evaluate its effectiveness on the knowledge and attitude of the mothers. Settings and Design: The study design was an interventional study. Subjects and Methods: Study was divided into 3 phases. In the first phase, statements and illustrations on ECC were framed and its ill effects were reviewed. The second phase involved panel discussion assessment by RAND modified e-Delphi method. Leaflets were prepared based on the European Commission Guidelines. Content validity was checked using the Lawshe method. Readability was checked using Flesch formula. Reliability was checked using the Kuder Richardson formula 20 reliability test. In the third phase, the final Kannada-translated version of the leaflet was field tested among 30 mothers. A pre- to post-intervention questionnaire was used to evaluate the effect of intervention. Statistical Analysis Used: The statistical analysis was performed using Chi-square test and paired t-test. P <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The resultant intervention was an A4-sized triple folded six-faced ECC leaflet. The content Validity Ratio value was 0.7, which was acceptable. The Flesch readability scored 76, which was “fairly easy.” The Kuder Richardson formula 20 (KR-20) reliability coefficient equaled 0.8 which was reasonably reliable. Conclusions: The leaflet was effective in improving the knowledge and attitude of mothers about ECC and showed a high acceptance both from a panel of experts and mothers.

INTRODUCTION:Young adults with Visual impairment (VI) challenge the dentists' skills and knowledge due to a higher risk of developing oral diseases due to difficulty in attaining good oral hygiene (OH).AIMS:To assess the effectiveness of ATP (Audio-Tactile Performance) technique and braille versus braille alone in improving OH status of young adults with VI.METHODS AND MATERIAL:A parallel arm, randomized controlled trial was conducted among 70 young adults with VI. Participants were randomly allocated to either test group (braille combined with ATP) or control group (braille alone). A pre-validated braille questionnaire was used to obtain the baseline data followed by clinical examination. OH status assessment was recorded through Gingival Index (GI) and Plaque Index (PI) proforma followed by a thorough ultrasonic oral prophylaxis. Periodic reinforcement was carried out on the 7th day, after 1 month and 3 months. The outcomes were assessed at the end of 3rd and 6th month.RESULTS:There was an increase in the knowledge scores after 3 and 6 months and attitude scores, GI scores and PI scores after 6 months in the test group compared to the control group and this difference was found to be statistically significant.CONCLUSIONS:The findings of this study showed that a combination of ATP and braille proved to be more effective than braille alone in improving the knowledge and OH status of young adults with VI.

Aim: To assess learning preferences and outcomes among dental and allied health science students.Objectives: The present study was conducted with the objectives and to assess learning preferences using Visual, Aural, Read/Write, and Kinesthetic Questionnaire and to assess students learning outcomes using student's yearly performance. Material and Methods:A cross-sectional study was conducted among the final year students from nursing, pharmacy, physiotherapy and dental colleges of The Oxford group of institution.VARK (Version 7.8) questionnaire was administered to the study population to collect information regarding participants' learning preferences and the individual's learning outcomes was collected by collecting yearly performance from the heads of the institution of each of the college.Results: A total of 278 final year students were recruited from the four different institutions of Oxford which included 81 nursing students,54 physiotherapy,74 pharmacy students and 69 dental students.The mean age of the study participant was found to be 23.1 ± 1.04 years of which 36.3% of the study participants were males and 63.7% were females.In the present study the most preferred learning style was visual (70%), followed by kinesthetic (69.4%) and aural (68%) and the least preferred was reading style (46%).When the modality of learning among students was taken into consideration, in the present study, about half of the study participants had preference for bimodal (54.7%) style of learning followed by unimodal (26.3%), trimodal (18.3%) and least chosen modality was quad modal (0.7%).When the performance of the students was taken into account, in the present study no significant difference was found between the learning styles (p = 0.09) and academic performance, however significant difference (p = 0.01) was found between academic performance and the modality used in learning. Conclusion:The present educational system focuses mainly on the ways in which students are being taught.The questionnaires of VARK can be extensively used by researchers to analyse learning style preferences as it is essential for a teacher to recognise that students have different styles of learning.This recognition will aid them to consider selecting different modalities and preferences, and reflect on the instruction modes effectiveness.

Introduction: Fluoride mouthrinsing has been established as an effective method to prevent dental caries among school children. Time-and-motion studies help to identify the efficiency of different processes and give a comprehensive cost estimate. Economic cost of utilising teachers for fluoride mouthrinsing in schools has not been explored. Aim: To determine the economic costs of fortnightly schoolbased Fluoride Mouthrinsing (FMR) program using the microcosting technique for a period of three years. Materials and Methods: The cost analysis study (community trial) was conducted in three government primary schools among 110 school children who were six to seven years old with high caries risk as assessed by the American Academy of Paediatric Dentistry guidelines. The school teachers were trained to carry out the FMR program by the investigator. Data on costs of resources was collected by micro-costing method using time-and-motion technique. Costs were classified as capital and recurrent costs and the total cost of the program along with unit cost were estimated. Results: In the three years, 58 sessions of mouthrinsing were conducted with dentist being the provider for the first three sessions and the rest were provided by the teachers. The total economic cost of all inputs amounted to Indian Rupees 2,00,592.6 (US $ 3,283.0) with 95.4% from recurrent costs and only 4.6% from capital costs. The capital costs with teachers as program providers were higher than that with the dentist as program provider whereas the recurrent costs with teachers was lower than the dentist as a program provider. Conclusion: Since the recurrent costs that make up 95% of the total costs was lower with teachers as providers than dentists, school-based FMR program using teachers can be used to provide dental services for underserved children with unmet preventive care needs.

Dental informatics is a new and distinct specialty area in its budding stage emerging on the global public health platform within the broader discipline of health informatics. Oral health information system is important in the evaluation of public health initiatives as well as for the assessment of achievements of goals for health. The potential role of dental informatics in diminishing oral health inequalities in underserved populations has been recognized by a number of reports from all over the world. Critical scientific and social obstructions can change the day by day exercises and the future scope of professionals associated with the related field. This review article discusses the difficulties challenges in Indian setting. The articles were searched in Pubmed and Google scholar database and a total of 15 articles were reviewed from 2003 to 2018. The rapidly developing scenario of dental public health and the future of the oral health in India would depend upon laying down the foundation for a multidisciplinary and flexible realm of dental public health informatics. Planning an effective oral health information system model, proper training, online research community, government funding, an automated dental treatment planning system for all diagnoses, and comprehensive electronic oral health record would remove critical barriers for solving important problems in dental informatics in India.

Background: Dental caries is a globally prevalent disease among children. Many preventive measures are effective, one among them being oral health education (OHE). OHE using activity-based techniques has been found useful for children. Aim: This study aims to develop and evaluate the coloring sheets (CSs) for educating children on the prevention of dental caries. Subjects and Methods: Activity sheets already existent in the literature were reviewed and content validation using the Lawshe method was applied. In addition, the design, cultural acceptability and suitability of use of the CS were assessed. The resultant CS was applied to 411 7–8-year-old children in their classrooms. The responses were compiled and proportion of correct responses for each item were calculated. Results: Ten items that were protective and harmful to teeth were unanimously accepted by the panelists. It was decided to use a happy or a sad tooth to indicate the choice of the child. A nonglossy paper with white background suitable for coloring with a crayon was used. A revised CS was finalized on the A4-sized sheet. The mean score for correct responses was 9.61 ± 0.54. Compared to other items, milk was scored incorrectly by significantly higher proportion of children. Conclusion: The CS can be used to educate children on the prevention of dental caries.

OBJECTIVE Assess interventions and health outcomes in studies giving data on economic evaluation (EE) of school-based caries prevention. BASIC RESEARCH DESIGN Systematic review. Both partial EE that included cost description, cost-outcome description, cost analysis and full EE that included both cost and outcome of at least 2 interventions were included. Quality assessment used the Consolidated Health Economic Evaluation Reporting Standards (CHEERS) guidelines. RESULTS An electronic search of 6 databases identified 558 titles and abstracts. Paper eligibility screening identified 32 full papers which met the inclusion criteria. Most were conducted in the United States and cost effectiveness analysis was the most common type of EE. Nine were model-based studies and 17 derived their data from single studies. Sealants were most frequently evaluated followed by fluoride mouthrinse. Many CHEERS criteria were not met in the included studies. The following were found to be cost-effective: school-based, under general supervision, longer duration of program and targeting high caries risk groups. CONCLUSIONS The deficiencies in the existing studies warrant more investigations of the economic aspects of school-based activities interventions to prevent caries.

Background: Recurrent aphthous stomatitis (RAS) is one of the most common mucosal disorders of the mouth. The exact etiology of aphthous ulcer is uncertain, but precipitated factors include stress, trauma, food sensitivity etc. The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of RAS among dental students and to find out its association with stress. Methodology: A cross sectional study was conducted among 100 undergraduate dental students. The data were collected using questionnaires in two sections-1) Prevalence of occurrence of RAS was assessed by using a self reported questionnaire and 2) Stress factor was assessed by using perceived stress scale. Results: This study was carried out in 100 under graduate students out of which 61% experienced aphthous ulcer. 26(42.6%) of students with aphthous ulcer had moderate stress and 35(57.4%) had severe stress. Perceived stress scores were high in dental students especially among the ulcer experienced group (61%) (p=0.001). Conclusion: This study outlines the factors involved in prevalence of recurrent RAS and its association with stress and reports the observational methods that can be enlisted to decrease the stress among dental students and improve their academic performance.

Integration of oral health into primary health care holds the key to affordable and accessible health care as oral health is still a neglected component in many countries. This review aims to determine integration of oral health into primary health care and provide an evidence-based synthesis on a primary oral healthcare approach. Searches were conducted in various databases like Biomed Central, MEDLINE, Cochrane databases, NCBI (PubMed), Sci-Hub, Google Scholar, and WHO sites. The studies included in this review are according to the following eligibility criteria: the articles in English language, the articles published from January 2000 to October 2018, and only full text article. The search yielded 500 articles. After removal of duplicates: 410 articles screened based on title and abstract, 100 full text articles were assessed for eligibility, and 30 full text articles were included. This review showed evidence how oral health is related to general health: focused on common risk factor approach and bidirectional relationship. There are various ways of integration, such as interprofessional education, interprofessional collaborative practice, closed-loop referral process, and various public and private partnerships, and at the same time, there are a lot of barriers in integration. Thus, the primary oral health care needs to be developed as an integral part of primary health care. Consequently, there is a need to increase finance, health care workforce, government support, and public-private partnership to achieve the goal of affordable and accessible health care, i.e. health for all.

Introduction: Economic evaluation of healthcare programs is now commonplace in medicine and is becoming increasingly important in dentistry. As faculty members are involved in academic research activities and publication of various studies which help in decision-making, it is imperative to have the basic knowledge of economic evaluations to contribute significant results for the implementation of new programs and to modify the existing ones. Aim: To assess the knowledge about economic evaluation on research and practice by the teaching dental faculty of Bengaluru city, to assess the attitude toward application of economic evaluation, and to assess its practical applications. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in Bengaluru city. Among 17 dental colleges located in the city, eight colleges were randomly selected, and 300 participants were included. A self-administered questionnaire was prepared and validated. Participants who were present and willing to participate on the date of visit were included. Results: Among 300 participants, 16.7% participants responded as this was purely public health topic but refused to participate in the study after giving consent. Nearly 53% participants had knowledge regarding health economics and around 8% participants had learned the method of application in various aspects and used in research purposes. Around 18.4% participants viewed lack of training and credibility of studies as important barriers. Moreover, participants wished for a better explanation of the practical relevance of studies. Conclusion: Knowledge and practice was poor among the participants. Better explanation of the practical relevance, continuing dental education programs, and workshops pertaining to health economics should be conducted to create awareness and to improve knowledge and application of these techniques.

Introduction: An important objective of education is to improve clinical competence and hence confidence of students. Ample evidence on effectiveness of medical outreach programs is available but data pertaining to effectiveness of dental outreach, especially from developing countries, are still limited. The present study was undertaken to assess effectiveness of outreach placements on clinical confidence and communication skills of Indian dental students. Methods: A non-randomized trial was conducted in three randomly selected dental colleges of Bangalore city, India, amongst 89 students pursuing internship programs. Subjects were put into two groups: outreach (study group) and dental school based only (control group). A pre-tested, self-administered questionnaire was used to evaluate the change in clinical confidence and communication skills of both groups from baseline and after 3 months of follow-up via global self-assessment test, then-test and transition judgment. Outcome measures were analysed using t-test. Results: Global assessment revealed outreach group confidence level was higher in comparison to dental school based group only (4.37 +/- 0.49 vs 4.04 +/- 0.21, p<0.001), while using then-test their baseline confidence was observed to be lower (3.42 +/- 0.75 vs 3.72 +/- 0.72, p=0.04). Transition judgement rated an increase in their confidence significantly higher than the dental school based group only (4.24 +/- 0.91 vs 2.54 +/- 0.66, p<0.001). The outreach group rated increase in communication skills to be higher for the transition judgement. Conclusions: The present trial supports the concept of outreach programs to be incorporated in the existing dental curricula in order to supplement the traditional school-based dental education to achieve an overall professionally trained dentist.

PURPOSE:To investigate the prevalence of clinical consequences of untreated dental caries and its relation to dental fear among public schoolchildren in India.METHOD:A cross-sectional study of 1,452 schoolchildren aged 12-15-years in Bangalore city using a three-stage stratified random sample was conducted. Caries was scored by WHO (World Health Organisation) criteria (1997) and clinical consequences of untreated dental caries using the PUFA index. Dental fear was assessed by a single item dental fear questionnaire.RESULTS:The overall prevalence of caries was 57.9% and of untreated dental caries was 19.4%. Children with high dental fear had 2.05 times the risk of untreated caries as compared to children with low fear.CONCLUSIONS:This study showed that the prevalence of clinical consequences of untreated dental caries was low, and dental fear was shown to be a significant determinant of clinical consequences of untreated dental caries.

To detect the presence of eating disorders (EDs) and clinical findings in 20-25 years old women residing in professional college hostels in Bangalore city, India, a cross-sectional study was conducted. One hundred seventeen women of the 128 selected randomly participated in the study. SCOFF [Sick, Control, One-stone (14 lbs/6.5 kg), Fat, Food] Questionnaire was used for screening suspected cases of anorexia nervosa (AN) and bulimia nervosa (BN). Examination was done for systemic findings, extra-oral and intra-oral manifestations of EDs. Data obtained were analyzed using SPSS (version 13.0). The response rate was 71.3%, of which 42.7% were suspected to have EDs by SCOFF. Examination showed significantly higher prevalence of periomylolysis (p=0.004), dental caries (p=0.004), and tooth sensitivity (p=0.001) in suspected cases. The study succeeded at 'case-finding' of EDs with a significant prevalence of oral manifestations in suspected cases. Thus, dentists play a major role for early detection and prompt further referral of co-morbid disorders, like EDs.

Purpose: To investigate the prevalence and associated factors of traumatic dental injury (TDI) among 5- to 16-year-old schoolchildren in Bangalore City, India.Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, a probabilistic sample of 2,140 schoolchildren was administered a questionnaire and examined intraorally to record TDI using the Ellis classification. Descriptive statistics and regression models were used for analysis of the data.Results: The prevalence of TDI among 5- to 16-year-old schoolchildren in Bangalore City was 9.7%. Boys (12.2%) were affected more than girls (7.1%). About 85% of the injuries occurred in maxillary anterior teeth and 89% in the permanent dentition with fractures in enamel as the most common type of TDI. Unknown causes accounted for 53.6% and falls (36.7%) were the most common reported cause. Only 3.9% of children with TDI had sought treatment. Children from public schools aged less than 10 years and boys had significantly higher TDIs as compared to private schoolchildren, those over 10 years of age and girls.Conclusion: The present study revealed a moderate prevalence of dental trauma. An emergent problem such as TDI should be met by public health policies that emphasise the prevention of TDI based on the knowledge of the risk factors. Children, parents and schoolteachers should be educated about the prevention and timely management of dental trauma in children.

To investigate and describe the characteristics of traumatic dental injury (TDI) in children with disabilities attending special schools in Bangalore, India and to compare these with a matched group of healthy children.

Aims and objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the levels of dental fear, and its association with dental caries and gingivitis among 12 – 15 year old government high school children in Bangalore City, India. Methods: Eight government high schools were selected by simple random method from the 2 zones of Bangalore City. All the children who participated in this study were asked the single item Dental Anxiety Question to assess the dental fear and underwent oral examination for dental caries and gingivitis using decayed, missing and filled teeth (DMFT) index and Community Periodontal Index (CPI), respectively. Results: The prevalence of high dental fear among the study population was 23.4%. The mean MT was significantly associated with high fear. Highly significant correlation was found between presence of bleeding on gentle probing and high dental fear. Conclusion: High dental fear plays an important role in the oral health status of 12 to 15 year old children.

Individuals with end stage renal disease (ESRD) requiring dialysis pose significant dental management dilemma and display oral manifestations with specific implications for oral health care. This study was conducted to assess the oral health status and treatment needs of patients on renal dialysis in NU Trust Hospital, Bangalore. A total of 120 patients with a mean age of 49 15.47 years were compared with a control group. The mean DMFT in the dialysis group was 2.4 4.3 compared to 4.5 4.1 of the control group. None of the individuals displayed healthy periodontium. There were no statistically significant differences in PLI and GI among the groups. This study shows that poor oral health in this population should be evaluated and the dialysis team should reinforce daily oral health maintenance.