Good oral health in old age is particularly important for maintaining adequate oral function, preventing pain and discomfort, controlling localized or systemic inflammation, sustaining social interaction and preserving quality of life. Given that oral health is an integral part of general health and well-being, and that major chronic systemic and oral diseases share common risk factors, oral health prevention and promotion should be embedded within routine medical assessment and care provision. The role of medical physicians, particularly primary care physicians, geriatricians and elderly care physicians, in community and long-term care facilities in assessing and promoting oral health in frail older adults is critical and has been emphasized in recent European recommendations. All physicians should appreciate the importance of oral health and incorporate an initial oral health screening into routine medical assessment and care. A short interview with patients and carers on current oral health practices may help to assess the risk for rapid oral health deterioration. The interview should be followed by an oral health assessment, using validated tools, for non-dental health care providers. Based on these findings the physician should decide on necessary follow-up procedures which may include oral health counseling and/or dental referral. Oral health counseling should include advice on daily oral, mucosal and denture hygiene, denture maintenance, dietary advice, smoking cessation, limitation of harmful alcohol consumption, management of xerostomia and frequent dental review. To enable physicians to perform the tasks recommended in this publication appropriate teaching at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels must be delivered in addition to provision of appropriate continuing education courses.

Overall improvement in the nationwide system of medical services has consequently boosted the number of successfully treated patients who suffer from head and neck cancer. It is essential to effectively prevent development of radiation-induced caries as the late effect of radiation therapy. Incidence and severity of radiationinduced changes within the teeth individually vary depending on the patient's age, actual radiation dose, size of radiation exposure field, patient's general condition and additional risk factors. Inadequately managed treatment of caries may lead to loss of teeth, as well as prove instrumental in tangibly diminishing individual quality of life in patients. Furthermore, the need to have the teeth deemed unyielding or unsuitable for the application of conservative methods of treatment duly extracted is fraught for a patient with an extra hazard of developing osteoradionecrosis (ORN), while also increasing all attendant therapeutic expenditures. The present paper aims to offer some practical insights into currently available methods of preventing likely development of radiation-induced caries.

Three-dimensional (3D) printing consists in making 3D objects based on the digital data. The first one of those was made in 1983 by Charles Hull, with the aid of the sterolitography technique. 1 In the 1990s, 3D printers came into use in medicine, including dentistry. 1,2 It has been over the last few years that making use of the 3D printers has grown in significance. 3 Advances in the 3D printing technology facilitate making of the anatomical models, with a view to specifically aiding the planning of surgical procedures, developing surgical guidelines, organ models or individual dentures. [3][4][5][6] The systematic review carried out by Tack et al. indicates that 3D printers are mostly applied in orthopaedics and maxillo-facial surgery, less frequently in spinal, dental or vascular surgery 3

Objectives: The burden of stress experienced by dentistry students has been the subject of numerous studies aimed at defining the strongest stressors, and at reducing their intensity to improve the conditions and, consequently, the quality of education. Such studies have never been performed in the conditions of a pandemic caused by a new, unknown coronavirus. Therefore, the objective of the study was to identify the sources of their stress in the course of the studies, with reference to the COVID-19 pandemic. Material and Methods: A total of 334 dentistry students of the Institute of Dentistry at the Jagiellonian University Medical College were invited to take part in the study. They represented a range from the first to the fifth year of studies in the 2019/2020 academic year. The tool employed in the study was the Dental Environmental Stress (DES) questionnaire and 11 supplementary questions related to the pandemic. The study was carried out on June 1-25, 2020. Results: The participation rate was 72%. Academic work presented the highest level of stress. A comparison of the overall levels of stress in particular domains as well as questions included in the DES survey revealed significant differences between students of individual years of studies in the 2019/2020 academic year. The strongest positive relationships between the supplementary questions and the DES domains appeared in the area of clinical factors. These concerned returning to clinical classes and contact with patients with regard to SARS-CoV-2 (r s = 0.50, p < 0.001), contact with patients in connection with SARS-CoV-2 (r s = 0.47, p < 0.001), and a lack of practical classes with patients in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic (r s = 0.42, p < 0.001). Conclusions: Dentistry students were subjected to stress resulting from a conflict between the perceived risk of returning to clinical classes and contact with patients due to SARS-CoV-2, and disruptions in the course of clinical education, which they perceived negatively.

Introduction Making use of 3D printed teeth models in teaching students offers an innovative approach. The mistakes made by the students at the access cavity stage were assessed with the aid of 3D models, and their overall, hands‐on learning progress was evaluated. Material and methods Ninety 3D models of teeth were constructed using stereolithographic technology and then randomly divided into 9 groups. One dentistry student was randomly assigned to each group and then performed primary access cavity in 10 identical 3D models. Then the teeth were evaluated in the order of their preparation, relative to the model tooth. Results The material of 14 (15.5%) out of 90 teeth models sustained significant damage during the preparation. As regards the remaining 76 (84.5%) 3D models, the students committed the greatest number of mistakes on the incisors, and fewer on the molars and the least in the premolars. The difference in the number of errors between particular groups of teeth was statistically significant (P = .0001). The number of errors committed in subsequent repetitions amongst all students was significantly different for the incisors (P = .00215) and premolars (P = .00383), whereas insignificant in the case of molars (P = .77116). Conclusions Thanks to perfect representation of teeth anatomy; making use of 3D models in the teaching of endodontics may well be recommended as holding substantial potential in improving overall quality of training at the pre‐clinical stage, with a view to appreciably reducing overall risk of encountering complications during the actual clinical work.

Improvement in knowledge and attitudes related to a patient-dependant phase of AMI is needed in adults even if they experienced AMI before. A routine advice from a doctor may contribute significantly to this improvement.

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Background. Human longevity has increased throughout all developed countries in the world, including Poland. In an aging population it is important to ensure adequate oral health for future generations as prevention and treatment methods adopted so far may soon appear insufficient. Objectives. The aim of this study was to assess whether social and behavioral factors, i.e. education, smoking, occupational activity, alcohol consumption, sports activity and perceived health influence tooth loss, functional dentition, oral hygiene, and periodontal health. Material and Methods. The study involved 1008 Krakow residents (478 men and 530 women), between the age from 50-75 years. Information on age, education, occupational activity, alcohol consumption, perceived health, smoking status, sports activities was collected by the interview using standard questionnaire. Oral examinations were carried out according to the WHO recommendations. Two definitions of poor functional dentition (FD) were used, i.e. having less than 20 teeth and having less than 4 pairs of contacting teeth. Pocket depths (PD) were measured using Hu-Friedy periodontal probe type PCPUNC15. Oral hygiene was assessed using Plaque Index (PI) by Silness & Löe.Results. There were 16% edentulous men and women. After adjustment for covariates, persons with low education had more than seven times higher prevalence of having poor FD in women and twice higher prevalence in men compared to persons with university education (OR = 7.05 95% CI: 2.50-19.82 and OR = 2.18 95% CI: 1.18-4.02 respectively). Smoking was strongly related to the prevalence of edentulism and to the prevalence of having no FD both in men and women. After adjustment for covariates, former male smokers and current female smokers had about twice higher prevalence of periodontal disease. Conclusions. Low education and tobacco smoking appeared to be the factors strongly and independently associated with poor oral hygiene and health. Relations between oral health and other socioeconomic and behavioral factors were weaker and they were attenuated after adjustment to age, education and smoking (Dent. Med. Probl. 2016, 53, 1, 66-77).