Orthodontic treatment demand in young adolescents - Are parents familiar with their children's desires and reasons?

AIM

To assess the levels of agreement between parents and adolescents about young adolescents' orthodontic treatment demand and to what extent is treatment demand conditioned by family and psychosocial impacts and oral function.

DESIGN

This cross-sectional study included 221 adolescents (11-14 years, 54% female) and their parents. A 5-point scale was used to assess orthodontic treatment demand. Adolescents self-administered the Child Perceptions Questionnaire, and parents self-administered the Parental-Caregivers Perceptions Questionnaire and Family Impact Scale. The Index of Orthodontic Treatment Need Dental Health Component (IOTN DHC) was used for determining malocclusion severity. Intraclass correlation coefficient and Cohen's kappa coefficient were used for the assessment of agreement between two informants.

RESULTS

The parent-child agreement on children's orthodontic treatment demand was weak, concording in 67.4% of cases. The most common reasons for seeking orthodontic treatment derive from the emotional (EW) and social well-being domains for both informants. In linear regression, the adolescent's reporting of impaired EW and IOTN DHC was the only significant linear predictor of orthodontic treatment demand.

CONCLUSION

Parents cannot correctly assess the orthodontic treatment demand of their children. Impaired EW is the most significant self-reported determinant of adolescents' demand for orthodontic treatment. Family relationships and parental perspective have a low influence.

Oral Health of Children from the SOS Children's Village in Croatia

The aim of this study was to determine the values of DMFT/DMFS and dft/dfs in the examined groups of children and the assessment of the mothers of the examined groups of children related to the oral health of their children. The research included children from the SOS Children’s Village in Croatia as well as children from biological families from rural and urban areas. The children were examined by the visual–tactile method according to the standardized World Health Organization criteria. dft/DMFT and dfs/DMFS indices were calculated. An analysis of completed questionnaires was made. The children from the SOS Children’s Village demonstrated the lowest mean values of the dft/dfs (2.42/3.31) and DMFT/DMFS (1.61/2.23) indices compared to children from rural and urban areas. The Kruskal–Wallis test showed a significant difference (p = 0.01) in SiC index values between the examined children. In the groups of children from the SOS Children’s Village and from the rural area compared to the children from the urban area, oral hygiene was singled out as the most important factor in the analysis of the main components. An equally significant factor for all the respondents is the assessment of oral health and eating habits. The least significant factor for the group of children from the SOS Children’s Village is socio-economic status, which is the most significant for the children from the urban area. The children from the SOS Children’s village have the lowest dft/DMFT, dfs/DMFS, and SiC indices. The most important factor influencing oral health in the group of children from the SOS Children’s Village that stands out is oral hygiene, and the least important is the socio-economic status. The assessment of oral health by the SOS mothers does not differ from the assessment of biological mothers of children from rural and urban areas.

Knowledge on Pre-Hospital Emergency Management of Tooth Avulsion among Croatian Students of the Faculty of Education

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the knowledge regarding tooth avulsion and dental first aid response among Croatian students of the Faculty of Education. A cross-sectional study was conducted among students. Participants (N = 235) were female with an average age of 21.9 ± 2.7 years. The questionnaire contained 10 close-ended questions with two to eleven possible answers. Every participant chose one correct answer. Statistical significance was determined using a Chi-square test. Majority of participants had never received any kind of information on management of a knocked-out tooth. Questions in the nature of tooth injuries, a knocked-out tooth, tooth replantation and whether the knocked-out tooth should be placed back were answered confirmatively by 40.43%, 83.40%, 57.02% and 62.55% of participants, respectively. The questionnaire showed that 18.78% of participants were aware that replantation should be performed within 30 min. The appropriate cleaning and transport medium was chosen by 40.85% and 35.31% of participants, respectively. A nearby dentist would be visited by 66.38% of students. Only 8.08% of participants provided a correct answer to all of the knowledge-based questions. The “I do not know” answer was chosen by 18.30% of participants whenever it was offered. This indicates that the majority (89.78%) were not aware of the fact that the procedure they chose would be inappropriate. The current study confirmed that future primary school teachers have a lack of knowledge for immediate response to tooth avulsion, leaving small chances for a successful prognosis of tooth replantation.

Prevalence of Molar-Incisor Hypomineralization and Caries in Eight-Year-Old Children in Croatia

The aim of this study was to detect molar–incisor hypomineralization (MIH) and caries prevalence in eight-year-old children with early mixed dentition in Eastern Croatia. There is a lack of data on MIH in Croatia. There were 729 children examined in total: 356 (48.83%) were female and 373 (51.16%) were male. The presence of MIH was found in 95 children, the prevalence of MIH was 13%, and the remaining 634 (87%) did not have any changes associated with MIH. The prevalence of caries overall in the population of examined children was 11.48%. In the group of children with MIH, the prevalence of caries was 24.14%, while in the group of children with no MIH, the prevalence of caries was 11.18%. Teeth had a Decayed, Missing, and Filled Teeth (DMFT) index of 1.2, the value of the SiC index was 1.4, and the decayed, missing, and filled teeth (dmft) index for deciduous teeth was 5.8. Children with MIH had a caries index of DMFT 2.1, and the value of the SiC index was 2.6. The index of caries for non-MIH children was DMFT 1.1 and the SiC index was 1.2. MIH prevalence in Croatia is more common in girls than in boys. MIH has a significant impact on children’s development and is a major factor in the occurrence of caries.

An overview of coagulation disorders in cancer patients

A diversity of coagulation disorders in cancer patients arise from tumor-specific growth characteristics, neoangiogenesis with impaired endothelial lining, defective myelopoiesis, hypoproteinemia or metastatic lesions growth with organ dysfunction. Recent investigations have found a clinically relevant correlation of coagulation disorders and tumor growth. These prompted new therapeutic strategies focused on growth factors with the aim to control tumor metastasis, particularly if used for the treatment of micrometastatic disease. However, such treatment may lead to the life threatening coagulation imbalance. A coagulation homeostasis may become further impaired after nonsurgical cancer therapy, especially after preoperative irradiation, which produces lesions precipitating both bleeding and thrombosis. Anticancer chemotherapy may affect liver function and decrease the synthesis of both procoagulation and anticoagulation factors. The most of chemotherapeutic protocols affect platelet synthesis, which arises as a principal dose-limiting side effect. It was observed both during combined systemic chemotherapy and local antitumor therapy. Although the side effects produced by chemotherapy are reversible, endothelial lesions may persist for many years after the anticancer treatment. Instead of cancer patients, there's a growing cohort of patients with nonmalignant diseases who use cytostatics in the perioperative period, and are candidates for surgical procedures not related to their malignant disease, i.e. hernia repair. In this patient population a special attention must be paid to the preoperative evaluation of coagulation status and thromboprophylaxis. This overview reminds the most common coagulation disorders in cancer patients in the perioperative period. It emphasizes the need for proper patient monitoring which may facilitate the diagnostics and treatment of cancer-related coagulation disorders in the perioperative setting.

SESAM: exploring the frontiers of electron microscopy

We report on the sub-electron-volt-sub-angstrom microscope (SESAM), a high-resolution 200-kV FEG-TEM equipped with a monochromator and an in-column MANDOLINE filter. We report on recent results obtained with this instrument, demonstrating its performance (e.g., 87-meV energy resolution at 10-s exposure time, or a transmissivity of the energy filter of T1 ev = 11,000 nm2). New opportunities to do unique experiments that may advance the frontiers of microscopy in areas such as energy-filtered TEM, spectroscopy, energy-filtered electron diffraction and spectroscopic profiling are also discussed.