Objective. There is a change in the trends and distribution of dental caries in established and nonestablished market economies. The aim of this study was to describe caries distribution, prevalence, and treatment needs among school children in Port Harcourt, Nigeria.Materials and Methods. The study was a cross-sectional survey of students between the ages of 12 and 15 years. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire and clinical oral examination. Analysis of data was done using statistical package for social science version 20.0. Association between variables was tested using chi-square, independentt-test, and one-way analysis of variance.Results. The study population consisted of 195 school children of mean age13.21±1.09years. The prevalence of dental caries was 15.4% (n=30). The mean DMFT score for the entire group was0.25±0.66. Dental caries occurred more significantly (P<0.005) on the mandible (66.7%) than on the maxilla (33.3%) and was significantly (P<0.005) more prevalent on the first molars (66.7%) than on the second molars (26.6%).Conclusion. The number of untreated dental caries was high and the restorative index was low among the students. The overall caries prevalence and mean DMFT were low even when compared to other studies in similar populations in Nigeria.

Objectives: To assess the awareness, utilization and perception of healthcare workers towards National Health Insurance Scheme in a tertiary hospital. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study among healthcare workers in a tertiary health institution in Ile-Ife Nigeria. The study population included all the staff in the hospital excluding the doctors and the convenience sampling technique was employed in the selection of study participants. A well-structured self-administered questionnaire was used to obtain data from consenting participants at their duty posts and analysed using SPSS v20.0. Results: Study recorded 87.9% (246/280) response rate and over 60% (160) was within 19-38years and mean age was 35 years. More females (54.9% and 85.9%) than males (45.1% and 76.6%) participated in the study and registered with the Scheme respectively. Conclusion: Awareness of the workers was found to be fair, the perception was good and utilization not very encouraging. The study concluded that gender, marital status, having children and educational level were not significantly associated with awareness, perception and utilization of NHIS by healthcare workers.

Objective: Dental care is often avoided and misunderstood in pregnancy. The objective of this study was to evaluate the knowledge of dentists on the provision of dental care during pregnancy. Subjects and Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study among 76 dental practitioners in two Tertiary Health Institutions in Nigeria. The study participants were approached at their duty posts and informed consent was obtained before administering the questionnaire. Data were collected using pretested self-administered questionnaire and analyzed using IBM SPSS statistics version 20.0 (New York, United States). Results: Forty-seven (63.5%) of the participants were registrars, 48 (64.9%) were more than 35 years, and 40 (54.1%) had practiced for more than 5 years. Majority, 61 (82.4%) of the participants were willing to provide dental treatment during pregnancy. Registrars, 39 (64%) were significantly (P = 0.03) more likely to provide dental care during pregnancy than house officers. While 44 (59.5%) of dentists knew the best time to take dental radiograph was the second trimester of pregnancy, 48 (64.9%) knew dental radiographs could be taken in any trimester of pregnancy. Dentists who knew it was safe to use composite and amalgam during pregnancy and perform root canal treatment in the first trimester of pregnancy were 56 (75.6%), 59 (79.5%) and 13 (17.6%), respectively. Conclusion: Though the knowledge of the dentists on dental care during pregnancy was good, this need to be improved upon. Therefore, there is a need to develop guidelines and train dentists on dental care during pregnancy.

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