The purpose of this study was to determine levels of oral health knowledge and factors associated with adequate oral health knowledge in adults with diabetes. A convenience sample of 253 adult US residents with diabetes completed an oral health survey to assess their knowledge. Results showed that only 47% of the participants answered five or more (out of a maximum of seven) oral health knowledge items related to diabetes correctly. Participants who received oral health information related to diabetes have 2.9 times the odds of possessing adequate oral health knowledge (i.e., answered five or more items correctly) compared to participants who did not received that information controlling for education and race (OR = 2.86, 95% CI 1.26-6.24, P = 0.008). Given that oral health information provided by health professionals (dental and/or medical) contributes to improve oral health knowledge among adults with diabetes, health professionals should take the opportunity to educate patients with diabetes about the oral manifestations (e.g., dry mouth) and complications (e.g., periodontitis and oral candidiasis) of diabetes and to promote proper oral health behaviors.

Background-African Americans have a disproportionate burden of diabetes. Gullah African Americans are the most genetically homogeneous population of African descent in the US, with an estimated European Caucasian admixture of only 3.5%. This study assessed the previously unknown prevalence of periodontal disease among a sample of Gullah African Americans with diabetes and investigated the association between diabetes control and presence of periodontal disease.

OBJECTIVES We sought to understand disparities in dental insurance coverage and dental care among US children by race/ethnicity, urban/rural residence, and socioeconomic status. METHODS Linked data from the National Survey of Children's Health and Area Resource File were analyzed (N = 89 071). Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to adjust for confounders. RESULTS A total of 22.1% of US children lacked parentally reported dental insurance coverage in the preceding year, 26.9% did not have a routine preventive dental visit, and 5.1% had parentally perceived unmet need for preventive dental care. US born minority children were less likely to lack dental insurance than US-born white children; however, foreign-born Hispanic children were more likely to be uninsured. Rural children were more likely to be uninsured than urban children. Children with health insurance were more likely to have dental coverage. Children who lacked dental insurance were less likely to have received preventive care and more likely to have unmet need for care. Compared with US-born white children, all minority children were less likely to receive preventive care. These disparities were exacerbated among foreign-born children. Fewer race-based disparities were found for unmet need for dental care. Only black children, both US and foreign-born, had higher odds of unmet need for preventive services than US-born white children. Poor dental health was strongly associated with unmet need. Disparities in dental insurance coverage and dental care are also evident by family socioeconomic status. CONCLUSIONS Poor and minority children were less likely to receive preventive dental care, even when insurance status was considered. Rural children were less likely to have dental insurance than urban children. Foreign birth affected insurance status for Hispanic children and use of preventive services for all minority children.

Failure to account for dependence among site-level agreement indices results in a false sense of precision in the resulting reliability estimates and can lead to faulty inference.

A black girl was born with flexion contractures and experienced pain on movement by 1 week of age. She subsequently developed perioral papules, gingival hyperplasia, perianal nodules, torticollis, diarrhea, rectal prolapse, and inability to open her mouth. Her skin became increasingly sclerodermatous, and velvety, hyperpigmented plaques arose over bony prominences. A skin biopsy specimen showed hyaline material in the papillary dermis with lack of elastic fibers. Ultrastructural examination revealed fibrillogranular material around fibroblasts and blood vessels. This child had the clinical, histologic, and ultrastructural features of infantile systemic hyalinosis. This disorder has not been described in a black infant. Previous case reports of infantile systemic hyalinosis are reviewed and unusual features of our case are discussed.