Neutrophil collagenase-2 immunoassay had a high sensitivity for at least two sites with BOP and two sites with periodontal pockets but a lower relationship for single-site pockets and BOP.

Objectives: 1. To investigate the relationship between periodontitis and infertility. 2. To evaluate the importance of oral hygiene to general health. Materials and methods Eighty-six men requiring seminal fluid analysis as part of an on-going investigation for infertility in their spouses were serially recruited into the study. Basic dental and periodontal examination were performed. Each participant was also screened for periodontitis using a lateral flow immunoassay kit which detected levels of active membrane metalloproteinase-8. Results were read-off as a color change. Due to some incomplete entries, only 76 participants were involved in the final data analysis. Results There were 55 subjects with subnormal counts (of which ten were found to be azoospermic, 41 oligospermic) and 25 normospermic controls. A positive association was found between periodontitis and subnormal sperm count in only one age group but statistically significant association was found between poor oral hygiene and subnormal sperm count across all age groups. Conclusion For the first time, there appears to be a significant association between poor oral and subnormal sperm count. There also appears to an association between chronic periodontitis and subnormal sperm count. These relationships warrant further investigation. Principal findings There appears to be a link between poor oral hygiene and low sperm count. How to cite this article Nwhator SO, Umeizudike KA, Ayanbadejo PO, Opeodu OI, Olamijulo JA, Sorsa T. Another Reason for Impeccable Oral Hygiene: Oral Hygiene-Sperm Count Link. J Contemp Dent Pract 2014;15(3):352-358.

Background:Chronic periodontitis is gaining increasing prominence as a potential influnce on systemic health. Time to conception has been recently investigated in relation to chronic periodontitis among Caucasians. The authors set out to replicate the study among Nigerian pregnant women.Aim:The etiology of many medical conditions have been linked with the state of the oral health and one of such is the time to conception (TTC) among women. This study was aimed to assess the effect of periodontitis on TTC.Subjects and Methods:A cross-sectional study in a hospital setting involving 58 fertility clinic attendees and 70 pregnant controls using the simplified oral hygiene index, community periodontal index (CPI) and matrix metalloproteinase-8 immunoassay. Statistical analysis used included Spearman's rank order correlation statistic, Z-statistic and logistic regression.Results:Good oral hygiene correlated with shorter TTC (<1 year) than fair oral hygiene, but not statistically significant. The odds of increased conception were higher with CPI (odds ratio [OR]: 0.482, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.259-0.895, P = 0.02), periodontitis risk (OR 0.157, 95% CI 0.041-0.600, P < 0.01) and age (OR 0.842, 95% CI 0.756-0.938, P < 0.01).Conclusion:Chronic periodontitis was positively associated with increased TTC in the present study. The authors are recommending that women in child bearing age should be encouraged to have regular preventive dental check-ups in order to maintain good oral and periodontal health.

Background:Good denture care practice by individuals using Removable Partial Denture (RPD) is an important component of oral health measures. An assessment of denture care practice of such individuals by dental care practitioners is necessary.Objective:To evaluate the denture care practice among prosthetics patients attending a tertiary Hospital Dental Centre in Nigeria.Materials and Methods:An interviewer administered questionnaire was used to obtain information from RPD wearers that were willing to participate. The questionnaire assessed among other things, patients’ bio-data, frequency, techniques and device used for cleaning their dentures. Data was analyzed using Chi-square test (P < 0.05).Results:One hundred and ninety eight denture wearers consisting of 100 (50.5%) males and 98 (49.5%) females participated in the study. Majority 110 (55.6%) cleaned their dentures once daily and toothbrush and pastes were used by 105 (53%) of the participants. More than 70% of the respondents removed their dentures at night. One hundred and sixty-six (83.8%) visited the dentist only when they needed treatment. There was a statistical significant relationship between frequency and technique of cleaning denture, and denture cleanliness (P < 0.05).Conclusion:This study shows that once daily cleaning of dentures and cleaning the denture with rest of the teeth are ineffective in prevention of plaque accumulation.

Background:The possibility of some systemic diseases having oral manifestation is well established with the recent discovery that some oral diseases also adversely affect the general health of an individual. The question is, is the relationship casual or causal? Aim: To assess the perception of medical doctors concerning the possible link of oral diseases as causal/confounding factors of systemic diseases. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional survey of 250 medical doctors was carried out in three tertiary health institutions in Nigeria. Questionnaires were distributed to resident doctors to assess their perception as to the possibility of any causal relationship between the general systemic diseases and oral diseases. Results: Two-hundred and seven completely filled questionnaires were returned out of the 250 distributed. Over 50% of the respondents strongly agreed to the fact that there is a link between oral diseases and conditions such as diabetes mellitus, rheumatic heart disease, valvular heart disease, and human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome HIV/AIDS. Hypertension and premature low birth weight has the highest percentage (18.8%) of respondents strongly disagreeing with the possibility of having any link with the state of the oral health. There was a statistically significant difference in the perception of the possible link between the state of oral health and myocardial infarction between male and female respondents (P < 0.04) and also when the age-groups were considered in relationship with valvular heart disease (P < 0.02). Conclusion: This study revealed that doctors' perception of the influence of dental disease/condition on the general state of patients' health was deficient and, therefore, require improvement through health education and awareness.

Currently, diagnosis of chronic periodontitis is based on clinical methods which are cumbersome and have been shown to have inherent errors and drawbacks including inability to detect active disease. There is therefore an urgent need for a timely, cost-effective and less cumbersome method. Salivary matrix metalloproteinase-8 has been shown in some studies to be a promising bio-marker of chronic periodontitis. This was a case-control study conducted at the University College Hospital, Ibadan. It had 40 cases and 40 controls designed to assess the diagnostic ability of salivary MMP-8 in periodontal disease. Unstimulated whole saliva was assessed using the Quantikine human total MMP-8 ELISA kit from R&D ® systems Europe.

Context: Teething, which is the eruption of primary teeth in infancy, had been associated with various types of symptoms by both the parents and some healthcare workers. The association of symptoms with teething had led to the use of medications to alleviate these symptoms, which in some cases had claimed the lives of some of the children. Aims: This study aims at assessing the belief and practice of nursing mothers concerning the use of pre-emptive medications for children in order to prevent perceived symptoms of teething. Settings and Design: Cross-sectional study among nursing mothers who brought their children to immunization clinic. Subject and Methods: An interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to assess the belief of nursing mothers on the use of pre-emptive medications against perceived symptoms of teething, the drugs used and the age of their children when they started using the drug(s). Statistical Analysis: Data analysis was done using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 14. Analysis included frequency, mean of quantitative values and cross tabulations. Chi-square test was used to assess the relationship between those mothers, who believed that the medication should be used and those who did not believe in relationship with their age and their socio-economic status. Results: A total of 290 nursing mothers were assessed with 169 (58.3%) believing that drugs should be used as a pre-emptive measure for teething to be uneventful. Twenty-five (8.6%) of the mothers started the medications soon after birth, whereas 34.5% started it after the third month of life. Conclusions: There is the need for greater public enlightenment in order to reduce the use of medication(s) as a pre-emptive measure against "teething" as seen among the studied group.

Background:Periodontal diseases had been reported to be worse in the presence of hormonal imbalance as seen during pregnancy, which if that is the case, should resolve following childbirth when the hormonal level of the women should have reverted to normal.Subjects and methodsPeriodontal health of 345 pregnant women was assessed once during pregnancy and at 14th week following their childbirth. The clinical variant of community periodontal index of treatment needs probe was used in the assessment.Results:During pregnancy, 167/345 (48.4%) of the women had deep pockets, 178/345 (51.6%) had shallow pockets. After childbirth, 5/345 (1.5%) had healthy periodontium, 25/345 (7.2%) had calculus and 7/345 (2.0%) had deep pockets. All of the respondents required oral hygiene instructions (OHI) and prophylaxis and 167/345 (48.4%) required complex treatment during pregnancy. After childbirth, 340/345 (98.5%) of the women required OHI and prophylaxis. Despite the great need for dental treatment among the respondents, majority never sought any treatment as 308/345 (89.3%) of the respondents had never visited a dentist before the study.Conclusion:The fact that the deep pocket reduced drastically following childbirth shows that it was not a true pocket. The high unmet treatment needs among the respondents require a concerted effort from dentists and policy makers in order to enlighten the women, especially those of child bearing age concerning the need for preventive dental visitation.