Objectives:To evaluate self-reported oral health attitudes and behavior among a group of dental students in Bangalore, India and to compare the oral health attitudes of students of different years of dental school.Methods:A self-administered questionnaire based on a modified version of the Hiroshima University Dental Behavior Inventory (HU-DBI) was administered to 250 dental students.Results:Significant differences (P<.05) were observed among students of different years in the degree of worrying about the color of the teeth, not having been to the dentist before and brushing each tooth carefully. Strongly significant differences (P<.001) were observed among students of different years in brushing the teeth twice daily, being satisfied with the appearance of the teeth, cleaning the teeth well without toothpaste, visiting dentist only when having a toothache, taking too much time to brush their teeth, worrying about having bad breath and using mouth rinse on a regular basis.Conclusions:Among dental students, the overall knowledge of oral health was good, even though there were deficits in knowledge in a few areas. The oral health attitudes and behavior of dental students improved with increasing levels of education.

ObjectiveIn children, manual dexterity poses a problem with the use of manual tooth brushes (MB), resulting in inefficient plaque removal. Recently, novel chewable brushes (CB) have been introduced which could overcome this problem but are less researched in children. The objective of this study is to assess and compare the plaque removal effectiveness of CB with that of MB.Materials and methodsA total of 60 patients aged 8 to 10 years were enrolled in a single-blinded randomized clinical trial. At baseline, disclosing solution was applied and the Turesky modification of the Quigley–Hein index (TQHI) plaque index and Loe and Silness gingival index were recorded. The subjects were randomly divided into two groups as group I (MB) and group II (CB) and they were instructed to use their respective brushes for a period of 1 week. For statistical comparison, the difference (prebrushing minus postbrushing) in average scores was calculated. Data were evaluated by the independent t test and paired t test, with p < 0.05.ResultsThe overall plaque scores reduced from 1.71 ± 0.4 to 0.79 ± 0.24 when using CB and from 1.64 ± 0.64 to 1.13 ± 0.47 when using MBs. On lingual tooth surfaces, CB showed a plaque reduction of 38.70 ± 11.04 to 12.60 ± 4.79 compared to less reduction from 37.43 ± 14.26 to 28.73 ± 11.37 for MB. The overall gingival scores were also reduced from 0.33 ± 0.51 to 0.09 ± 0.07 when using CB and from 0.30 ± 0.33 to 0.19 ± 0.23 when using MB. Differences in scores between the two brushes were statistically significant (p = 0.0001).ConclusionIt was concluded that the experimental CB was able to remove a significant amount of plaque, particularly on the lingual surfaces, and reduced gingival index scores, thereby improving oral hygiene and gingival health status.How to cite this articleKayalvizhi G, Radha S, et al. Comparative Evaluation of Plaque Removal Effectiveness of Manual and Chewable Toothbrushes in Children: A Randomized Clinical Trial. Int J Clin Pediatr Dent 2019;12(2):107–110.

Background: Interproximal contact areas in primary teeth are known to be broader, flatter, and situated more gingivally than in permanent teeth. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the different types of intact interproximal contact areas in primary teeth using cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) among children. Methods: A cross-sectional study was designed with 74 contacts from 28 existing CBCT images of children aged between 3 and 14 years, obtained from the Indian Dental Education Academy, Chennai, India. The shape of the contact area was observed at three levels, the coronal, middle, and apical thirds, in three different sections of CBCT. Prevalence of the types of contact areas was expressed in the form of numbers and percentages. Results: The weighted Cohen’s kappa values for inter-examiner reliability was 0.893 at baseline. Results exhibited four different types of contact areas between the primary molars, namely, O type, X type, I type, and S type, based on the shapes observed; hence, the proposed classification is referred to as OXIS. The most common pattern seen was I (66.2%), followed by X (21.6%), O (9.4%) and the least common was S (2.7%). Conclusion: The three-dimensional evaluation of intact interproximal contact areas between primary molars are of four types, O,X, I and S.

Contact areas in primary teeth are known to be broader, flatter, Background: and situated more gingivally than in permanent teeth. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the different types of intact contact areas in primary teeth using cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) among children.A cross-sectional study was designed with 74 contacts from 28 Methods: existing CBCT images of patients aged between 3 and 14 years, obtained from the Indian Dental Education Academy, Chennai, India. The shape of the contact area was observed at three levels, the coronal, middle, and apical thirds, in three different sections of CBCT. The weighted Cohen's kappa values for inter-examiner reliability was 0.893 at baseline. Prevalence of the types of contact areas was expressed in the form of numbers and percentages.Results exhibited four different types of contact areas between the Results: primary molars, namely, O type, X type, I type, and S type, based on the shapes observed; hence, the proposed classification is referred to as OXIS. The most common pattern seen was I (66.2%), followed by X (21.6%), O (9.4%) and the least common was S (2.7%).The three-dimensional evaluation of intact interproximal contact Conclusion: areas between primary molars are of four types.

Background The contact areas in between primary teeth are broader, flatter, and located further cervically when compared with the contact areas of permanent molars. Aim We investigated the prevalence of interproximal contact area types of primary molars using CBCT images in children aged 3‐10 years. Our second objective was to correlate OXIS contact areas when observed with CBCT images and clinical photographs. Design A retrospective cross‐sectional study was performed with 367 CBCT images of children, aged 3‐10 years, obtained from Children's Dental Centre, South Korea. The type of contacts in between primary molars was scored at various levels, specifically, occlusal, middle, and cervical thirds, according to OXIS criteria. Following this, the same patient's records were checked for the presence of clinical photographs and scored according to the same criteria. Prevalence was stated as percentages along with numbers. Chi‐square test was applied to determine association of contact areas across genders and arches. The correlation between the two methods was done by Cohen's Kappa correlation test. Results The prevalence of the OXIS contacts obtained from CBCT images was as follows: I (79.7%), followed by X (10.0%), S (6.6%), and, finally, O (3.7%). The overall score of all the 1343 contact areas matched with the score observed at the occlusal third. All included contacts were of O (open) type at cervical third, and 1,231 contacts were of O (open) type at the middle third. Significant results were observed with respect to arches (P < .001). The correlation between the two methods was found to be 0.958. Conclusions The contact area observed at the occlusal level determined the overall type of contact based on OXIS criteria. Thus, reports in the literature concluded that contact areas are broad, flat, and extend further gingivally should be revised. The study also concluded almost perfect agreement between CBCT images and clinical photographs.