Journal of Oral Health and Oral Epidemiology
Volume:12 Issue: 2, Spring 2023

COVID-19 is a respiratory disease identified in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, and it has become one of the century›s most significant public health concerns. Dentists are among the most exposed medical professionals to the risk of COVID-19 infection, and they must modify their routine clinical attitudes and behaviors. This study sought to assess the current status of dental professionals› knowledge, attitudes, and practices, as well as their adherence to COVID-19 pandemic guidelines.

A scoping review protocol was developed by searching scientific papers in EBSCO, MEDLINE, CENTRAL, Google Scholar, Web of Science, and Scopus electronic databases using “COVID-19” and “Dentistry” as key search terms to find relevant papers published until March 13, 2021. Two authors reviewed the potentially relevant articles in full. All cross-sectional or cohort studies that evaluated the knowledge, attitudes, or practices of dentists through questionnaires were selected for the review.

The search strategy led to the identification of a total of 405 articles which were subsequently assessed for eligibility. By application of inclusion and exclusion criteria, the obtained results were further reduced to 25 citations. The results were organized into the following categories: knowledge (transmission, signs and symptoms, incubation period, etc), attitudes (protective measurements, occupational risk of infection), and practices (protective measurements, personal protective equipment, current status of dental treatments, etc).

The research study came to the conclusion that the majority of dentists have sufficient knowledge of COVID-19 infection and comprehend the significance of performing only emergency procedures and delaying elective procedures. Moreover, most of them believed that more awareness programs on COVID-19 prevention are needed for both the dental fraternity and the public.

Injuries to the mouth and teeth due to various incidents have a high prevalence in society; therefore, it is necessary to diagnose them and provide a suitable treatment plan for them. The purpose of this research is to design, implement and evaluate smartphone-based software for dental treatment in oral and dental injuries in pediatric patients. This study is an applied-production study conducted in three stages: The first step is the preparation and design of algorithms, the second stage is the introduction of diagnostic and therapeutic algorithms into the software system, and in the third stage, the software system is evaluated for its efficiency and accuracy in diagnosing and providing a treatment plan. The samples were all 77 patients who were referred to the trauma department of Shiraz Dental School from June to July 2019. There was a significant correlation between the resident and the professor’s diagnosis with the software diagnosis, with 92.2% complete compliance, 3.9% relative compliance, and 3.9% non-compliance (kappa value = 0.91, P value < 0.0001). The accuracy and high speed of diagnosis and the offered treatment plan for all types of oral and dental trauma were acceptable. However, the software cannot replace a specialist and should be used in combination with expert opinion.

There is a sound pathophysiological framework for addressing oral health issues in general healthcare given the prevalence of oral diseases and their link to diabetes. However, many individuals with diabetes are unaware of the link between their disease and their oral condition, as well as the fact that they have a higher chance of experiencing a variety of difficulties with their oral health. The goal of this research was to assess the knowledge about oral complications due to diabetes mellitus among diabetes patients in Chengalpattu district, India. A cross-sectional study including 470 diabetes patients was carried out over a period of 4 months from February to May 2022. Descriptive statistics and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21. P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Many of the study subjects were not aware of the relationship between oral problems and diabetes. The knowledge about oral complications of diabetes was limited to awareness about dental caries (28.9%), periodontal disease (35.1%), xerostomia (51.8%), oral candidiasis (15.7%), and oral cancer (9.6%). Education and the duration of time after a diabetes diagnosis were the two most crucial predictors of awareness of the complications. Regarding the oral problems of diabetes, there is a dearth of knowledge, and this agreement is primarily associated with education and the duration of time from diabetes diagnosis.

The tongue is one of the most important organs in the oral cavity, and its lesions are a health concern for healthcare providers and patients. Limited epidemiological studies have evaluated tongue lesions in children. The present study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of various lesions on the tongue in a population of Iranian students. A total of 2051 students, aged 7–12 years, were randomly selected from elementary schools in Kerman using the random cluster sampling method from February 2020 to June 2020 for examination. The subjects’ age, gender, and identified tongue lesions were recorded in datasheets. The data were analyzed with SPSS software using the chi-square test and t test at a significance level of P < 0.05. Tongue lesions were identified in 29.9% of the children, and female children were affected at a higher rate than male subjects. The most frequent lesion was coated tongue, affecting 19.3% of the subjects, followed by partial ankyloglossia (3.6%) and fissured tongue (3.1%). The least frequent lesions were bifid tongue and microglossia (0.1% each). No cases of lingual thyroid were identified in the present study. Tongue lesions were identified at a relatively high frequency in children, necessitating general dental practitioners’ knowledge and awareness about the etiology, diagnosis, and management of these lesions.

Tobacco is one of the leading risk factors for many respiratory infections and is linked to the clinical severity of the disease. COVID-19 primarily infects the lungs and causes severe pneumonia-like illness. Tobacco consumption may thus, increase the risk for developing COVID-19. However, this study was planned to assess the tobacco consumption among COVID-19 patients and determine the relationship between SARS CoV-2 and tobacco use among COVID-19 patients. Lists of laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 positive patients aged 18-70 years were obtained from District Government Hospital on November 2020 and were interviewed telephonically after taking informed consent. A total of 470 patients under home isolation for the past one month after getting diagnosed with SARS CoV-2 were recruited in this study. Data was entered in MS Excel 2019 (Microsoft Corp.) and analysis was done using SPSS 25 (IBM Inc.). Chi-square and Fisher’s exact test were used and significance level was set 0.05 with 95% confidence interval. In the present study, the mean (standard deviation) age of participants was 37.8 (12.1) years. Among the COVID-19 patients, 21% of participants were tobacco users. Clinical symptoms such as fever, severe acute respiratory illness (SARI), acute respiratory illness (ARI), loss of taste/smell, and other symptoms such as body-ache, myalgia, nasal secretion and flue like symptoms were presented; of which most common symptoms were fever (26.8%) followed by SARI or ARI (11.5%) and significantly presented more among tobacco users (66.3%) than non-tobacco users (55.6%) (P = 0.036). Nonetheless smokers, these symptoms also affected significantly SLT users (64.8%) (P = 0.029) and dual tobacco users (100%) (P = 0.010). Tobacco use may worsen COVID-19 disease symptoms among COVID-19 patients.

Peri-implantitis is the main cause of implant failure and is associated with augmented oxidative stress or tissue destruction. In this study, it was aimed to investigate the oxidant-antioxidant balance parameters in individuals with peri-implantitis, considering the clinical findings and the control group. Peri-implantitis (n = 30) and healthy (n = 30) individuals participated in the study. Peri-implant clinical parameters, including probing depth (PD), gingival index (GI), plaque index (PI), bleeding on probing (BoP), and keratinized mucosa width (KMW), were recorded. The levels of total antioxidant capacity (TAC), total oxidant capacity (TOC), oxidative stress index (OSI), and arylesterase (ARE) in saliva were examined. To identify the relationship between oxidative stress biomarkers and clinical parameters was used Spearman’s correlation coefficient. TOC values were higher in peri-implantitis, and they correlated with BoP, GI, PD, and PI (P = 0.004, r = 0.370; P = 0.010, r = 0.328; P = 0.038, r = 0.268; P = 0.007, r = 0.342, respectively). TAC values were higher in healthy and correlated with PI, BoP, and GI (P = 0.021, r = -0.297; P = 0.035, r = -0.273; P = 0.012, r = -0.321, respectively). OSI showed a negative correlation with the KMW (mm) (P = 0.046, r = -0.259). Increased TOC and decreased TAC and ARE activity could be predictors of peri-implantitis development. Adequate KMW is important in the production of antioxidants.

The primary objective of this study was to assess the occurrence, distribution, and features of ectopic first permanent molars (FPMs), as well as to investigate the clinical outcomes associated with ectopic eruption based on the degree of root resorption observed in primary second molars. This study was performed retrospectively by examining panoramic radiographs of 7070 patients aged 5 to 12 years. The gender and age of the patients, the number, location, and distribution mode of ectopic FPMs, the resorption degree of the distal roots of primary second molars, and the clinical outcome of ectopic eruption were evaluated. Descriptive statistics and chi-square test were performed on the obtained data using SPSS version 22 (SPSS Inc, Chicago, IL, USA). In 144 of 7070 cases, a total of 221 ectopic permanent first molar teeth were detected (2% prevalence). The mean age of the 144 patients was 8.04 years. Ectopic eruption was most common in patients aged 7–8 years (48.63%), which was statistically significant (P < 0.05). Ectopic eruptions were more common in females (58.30%) than males (41.70%; P < 0.05). Of the ectopic permanent first molars, 78 (35.30%) were in the mandible, and 143 (64.70%) were in the maxilla. The relationship between the degree of resorption and the type of ectopic eruption was statistically significant (P < 0.05). The increase in the severity of root resorption in the primary second molars was a significant predictor for the prognosis of ectopic eruption in the present study. Early diagnosis and treatment of ectopic FPMs are of great importance to preventing premature loss of primary second molars resulting in malocclusion.

Considering the limitations of analytical models, it is recommended that modelling methods be used to solve complex social issues. Dynamic modelling helps policymakers to have a better understanding of system behavior. In health systems, considering the available resources and impact of decisions plays a key role in improving health. The lack of a dynamic and systematic attitude sometimes ignores the impacts, and the results are not desirable despite the cost. Considering the current situation, in this article, it is strongly recommended that a system dynamics approach be adopted to improve the health of society.

Using different articles, the use of modelling with a system dynamics approach has been introduced and emphasized.

Studies indicate the promising role of modelling with a system dynamics approach in the cost-effective improvement of oral health.

It is suggested that oral health decision-makers should focus on applying existing data and using them in system dynamics modelling to forecast and predict new policies before implementing them at the community level.