Purpose/objectives
To investigate dental students’ perceptions and concerns regarding the COVID‐19 pandemic, their coping strategies and support resources, and their perceived stress levels.
Methods
A customized 19‐item survey and the perceived stress scale (PSS) were applied to undergraduate dental students from the US, Spain, Ireland, Chile, India, and Brazil between April 10 and July 5, 2020. Linear modeling and mediation analysis were used to explore the relationships among demographics, stressors, coping mechanisms, social support, and stress
Results
A total of 4475 students responded to the survey. The majority (72.4%) were women, and 52.3% had no COVID‐19 training at the time of the survey. The students reported that they had to accommodate to changes in patient care (96.6%) and didactic learning (95.2%) activities, while 88.5% of the respondents indicated at least one of their courses moved online. Transition to online courses went “smoothly with some troubles” for 51.8% of the respondents, and 48.3% perceived the faculty as prepared for the online transition; however, 45.9% reported feeling extremely concerned about the impact of COVID‐19 on their education. The average PSS score was 21.9 of 40 (moderate stress). Multivariate models were built for participants with full data (n = 3899). Being male, having completed more dental coursework, and perceiving a smoother transition were associated with lower PSS scores; more concern about academic progress was associated with higher PSS. Faculty support mediated the relationship between a smoothness of transition and concern about academic progress and PSS scores
Conclusion
Stress caused by the pandemic may be alleviated by smoother transition and good faculty support.
Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of alcohol and nicotine, when used alone or simultaneously, on the alveolar bone loss area resulting from ligature-induced periodontitis in rats.
Study design: Forty adult male rats received a cotton ligature in the first lower molar sulcular area, and the animals were randomly assigned to different treatments (n = 10, each group) including daily peritoneal injections of saline solution (group A), submitted to self-administration of alcohol 25% (group B), nicotine solution in concentration 0.19 μl/ml (group C), and nicotine solution in concentration 0.19 μl/ml plus self-administration of alcohol 25% (group D). Five weeks later, the animals were sacrificed, and the samples were routinely processed for semi-serial decalcified sections.
Results: Ligated teeth showed more alveolar bone loss than unligated ones (p < 0.05). Unligated teeth showed no significant differences between each other (p > 0.05). Analyses between the ligated teeth showed that the group C (nicotine) or group B (alcohol 25%) each had increasing alveolar bone loss in the furcation area, and the simultaneous combination alcohol and nicotine (group D) intensified these effects (p < 0.05).
Conclusion: The results suggest that the simultaneous combination of alcohol and nicotine have a synergistic effect in the progression of periodontitis, evidenced by increased furcation region bone destruction in periodontal disease in rats.
Key words:Alveolar bone loss, periodontitis, nicotine, alcohol, rats.
Background
The Internet has become an established learning tool in dental education where students can access online videos on a range of dental subjects. However, finding reliable peer‐reviewed content is not straightforward.
Aim
To evaluate the video content offered by UK and Republic of Ireland (RoI) Dental Schools on their YouTube channels and public websites.
Methods
Free videos offered on UK and RoI Dental schools websites and YouTube channels were watched and set according to its purpose, as educational or non‐educational. The number of views, length, category and date of publication were analysed.
Results
A total of 627 videos offered by dental courses were evaluated. Videos were available on 83% of the websites, but only 9% was educational content. Dental courses YouTube channels received more than 2.3 million views, but less than 5% of the material offered is educational. Instructional videos found on the websites (3.2 min) were shorter than those found on YouTube (8.5 min) (P = .03). The majority of the videos, provided by Universities, were not educational and focused on promoting the dental courses. Most websites have demonstrated a password‐protected area where quality content may be offered.
Conclusion
Students wishing to watch instructional videos will find limited educational content provided by UK and RoI dental courses. Therefore, they are likely to access course‐related material elsewhere on the Internet that may not be necessarily peer‐reviewed.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.