ECC is not only a public health problem but also a social problem in Thailand, because it relates to family income and education level. The community development approach to assisting disadvantaged Thai children should be combined with an effective preventive program at a very young age. Future longitudinal research should be performed to improve the I-ECC for measuring the severity of ECC.

Notwithstanding the UC policy implementation made impressive strides toward improving of welfare coverage and an increase in accessibility of health services among Thais, inequality and inequity in oral healthcare utilization persist even when the country achieved universal coverage. Decomposition analyses demonstrate the association of each determinant to inequality in utilization which provides information for policy amendment to achieve the goal of equity in healthcare system.

Non-instrumentation endodontic treatment using 3Mix-MP showed good clinical success but had a low success rate based on radiographic evaluation at 2-year follow-up. Hence, 3Mix antibiotic treatment cannot replace a conventional root canal treatment agent as a long-term therapy.

Background/purpose Potassium iodide (KI) is used for reducing the degree of black staining occurred after silver diamine fluoride (SDF) application. However, the optimal KI concentration remains unknown. This study aimed to identify the optimal concentration of KI that effectively reduces black staining after SDF application. Materials and methods Twenty-four extracted teeth with similar pattern of carious lesions were assigned into 6 groups as follows: 1) SDF only, 2) SDF+7.5%KI, 3) SDF+10%KI, 4) SDF+15%KI, 5) SDF+20%KI, and 6) SDF+saturated KI. The KI solution was applied immediately after SDF application. Tooth images were obtained for color measurement at different time points as followed; before SDF application, immediately after SDF application, immediately after KI application, 1, 3, 7 and 14 days after SDF+KI application. The photographs were analyzed for mean gray value using the ImageJ program. Results The KI groups demonstrated a dose-dependent significant immediate reduction in black staining after KI application, except the saturated KI group. The teeth in the 20% KI group had the highest Δ mean gray value compared with other groups immediately after KI application, whereas a reduction in black staining in the saturated KI group appeared 1 day after KI application. The Δ mean gray value in all groups decreased over time. After 7 and 14 days, the reduction in black staining was not clearly different between KI groups. Conclusion KI application was able to reduce the degree of black staining in a dose-dependent manner, but the subsequent color change was minimal over the period of 14 days.

Despite some limitations, this study suggests that the mobile application has the potential to collect valuable oral health survey data.