BackgroundLinks between the demanding nature of studies in the health sciences, students’ personality traits and psychological distress have been well-established. While considerable amount of work has been done in medicine, evidence from the dental education arena is sparse and data from Latin America are lacking. The authors conducted a large-scale investigation of psychological distress among dental students in Colombia and sought to determine its curriculum and student-level correlates.MethodsThe Spanish version of the Derogatis’ Symptoms Checklist Revised (SCL-90-R) was administered to all students officially registered and attending classes or clinics in 17 dental schools in 4 geographic districts of Colombia between January and April 2012. Additional information was collected on participants’ socio-demographic information and first career choice, as well as school’s characteristics such as class size. The Global Severity Index (GSI) score, a measure of overall psychological distress, served as the primary analytical endpoint. Analyses relied on multilevel mixed-effects linear and log-binomial regression, accounting for study design and sample characteristics.ResultsA total of 5700 dental students completed the survey, a response rate of 67%. Pronounced gradients were noted in the association between socio-economic status and psychological distress, with students in higher strata reporting fewer problems. After adjustment for all important covariates, there was an evident pattern of increasing psychological distress corresponding to the transition from the didactic, to the preclinical and clinical phases of training, with few differences between male and female students. Independent of other factors, reliance on own funds for education and having dentistry as the first career choice were associated with lower psychological distress.ConclusionsLevels of psychological distress correlated with students’ socio-economic and study-level characteristics. Above and beyond the influence of person-level factors, variations in levels of distress paralleled specific transitional stages of the 5-year dental curriculum, providing opportunities for targeted interventions.
Chemotherapy and radiotherapy are aggressive treatments for cancer management. Both therapies make the stomatogatic system vulnerable to adverse effects on the oral mucosa and hard tissues. This may result in severe oral complications that can affect the quality of life of the oncologic patient. Consequently, oral diagnosis and interdisciplinary management by the stomatologist are critical for cancer treatment, regardless of its location. Objective. To determine the oral health status of cancer patients before, during and after antineoplastic treatment at a cancer institute in the city of Barranquilla, Colombia. Materials and Methods. A descriptive, longitudinal and prospective study of 131 cancer patients, was conducted. The study consisted of initial stomatological assessment of the antineoplastic therapy; classification according to the antineoplastic therapy given by the oncologist; a second stomatological assessment during treatment; and a final stomatological assessment or evaluation forty days after the end of therapy. Descriptive statistics, chi-square and MacNemar test were used to compare and identify variances at the different stages. Results. Female patients accounted for 69%, and breast cancer had 24% prevalence among the included subjects. At the initial stomatological assessment, high frequency lesions were identified, such as generalized biofilm-associated gingivitis in 69% of the cases, followed by oral candidiasis in 61%. The specific prevalence of lesions was 10.65%. In the second stomatological assessment, a greater frequency of periodontal abscesses was observed in 31%, and oral mucositis type II in 18%. The third clinical assessment showed significant changes in oral health status; an increase in the frequency of gingivitis was found in 9.9% (p<0.001); unlike before and during, there was an increment in dental caries of 26.73% (p<0.00000) at this last stage, root remains increased by 39.53% (p<0.00000), and finally, xerostomia increased by 45%. Oral candidiasis was the only lesion that showed improvement. Conclusion. An increase in the number of lesions was observed during and after antineoplastic treatment. The oral cavity is susceptible to antineoplastic treatments; gingivitis, candidiasis, xerostomia, and mucositis were observed, among others conditions.
Los tratamientos para el control del cáncer están encaminados a prolongar la sobrevida del paciente, pero al mismo tiempo desencadenan efectos inevitables e irreversibles, así como infecciosos, los cuales complican el pronóstico de la enfermedad oncológica. Dentro de estos últimos se encuentra la conducta patógena de Candida, cuya especie más común en la mucosa oral es albicans, considerada un hongo comensal que, a consecuencia de la neutropenia resultante de las terapias antineoplásicas, se comporta como oportunista y causa candidiasis. Esta infección fúngica tiene factores agravantes e inherentes al paciente, como la xerostomía y la hiposalivación, infecciones como la caries dental, y otros factores como la incorrecta higiene bucal. Diversos autores consultados resaltan la presencia de Candida, sus diferentes especies y la candidiasis bucal como microorganismo e infección clásica oportunista en pacientes inmunosuprimidos, y aún más en aquellos sometidos a tratamientos antineoplásicos. El objetivo de la presente revisión consiste en describir el comportamiento patógeno de Candida en la mucosa bucal de pacientes bajo tratamientos antineoplásicos.
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