The Brazilian version of OHIP14 has good psychometric properties, which are similar to those of the original instrument.

The contribution of health services to improvements in health is contentious. The main aim of the present study was to assess the relative contribution that dental services may have made to the changes in dental caries (decayed, missing or filled permanent teeth) level of 12-year-old children in some industrialized countries in the 1970s and early 1980s. A secondary aim was an analysis of the association of the changes in caries levels with broad socioeconomic factors. In this study aggregate (ecological) data from 18 industrialized countries were analyzed at a national level. Data were obtained from published papers and official publications and included 3 kinds of variables: caries, presence of dental service and broad socioeconomic factors (including fluoridated toothpastes). Dental services explained 3% of the variation in changes in 12-year-old caries levels in the 1970s and early 1980s period whereas broad socioeconomic factors (including or excluding fluoridated toothpastes) explained 65%. The findings suggest that dental services were relatively unimportant in explaining the differences in changes in 12 year-old caries levels in the 1970s and early 1980s in the 18 countries. The view that fluoride in toothpaste was the only important cause of the declines in decayed, missing or filled permanent teeth in industrialized countries was questioned. A possible important contribution of the dental services to the declines was a change in the diagnostic and treatment criteria of caries.

Standard F toothpastes are effective in reducing dental caries in the primary teeth of preschool children and thus their use should be recommended to this age group.

For health care planning and policy, it is important to determine whether socio-economic disparities in edentulism, an ultimate marker of oral health, have improved over time. The aim of this study was to investigate the socio-economic disparities in edentulism between 1972 and 2001. Representative samples of the United States population, 25-74 years old, were obtained from NHANES I (1972), III (1991), and 1999-2002. Differences in the edentulism prevalence between high and low socio-economic positions (SEP) were compared. Differences in edentulism prevalence remained stable over approximately three decades (p = 0.480), being 10.6 percentage points in 1972, 12.1 percentage points in 1991, and 11.3 percentage points in 2001. Exploratory subgroup analyses suggested that disparities decreased for those individuals reporting a dental visit in the prior year and those reporting never having smoked. In conclusion, the absolute prevalence difference in edentulism between low and high socio-economic positions has remained unchanged over the last three decades.

Toothache in children is a sizeable problem in Harrow and had substantial consequences for children and their guardians. Freedom from disabling dental pain/discomfort is an outcome indicator of oral health and could be used as an explicit goal by dental systems. It is important to note however, that the present study did not assess the extent to which the dental pain was associated with avoidable dental problems as opposed to normal physiological processes. It is important that future work try and separate the prevalence of dental pain caused by physiological from avoidable pathological factors. In addition, future work is needed to assess how effectively and efficiently dental services are responding to people suffering with dental pain.

No abstract

Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer mortality in Brazilian women. The new Brazilian guidelines for early detection of breast cancer were drafted on the basis of systematic literature reviews on the possible harms and benefits of various early detection strategies. This article aims to present the recommendations and update the summary of evidence, discussing the main controversies. Breast cancer screening recommendations (in asymptomatic women) were: (i) strong recommendation against mammogram screening in women under 50 years of age; (ii) weak recommendation for mammogram screening in women 50 to 69 years of age; (iii) weak recommendation against mammogram screening in women 70 to 74 years of age; (iv) strong recommendation against mammogram screening in women 75 years or older; (v) strong recommendation that screening in the recommended age brackets should be every two years as opposed to shorter intervals; (vi) weak recommendation against teaching breast self-examination as screening; (vii) absence of recommendation for or against screening with clinical breast examination; and (viii) strong recommendation against screening with magnetic resonance imaging, ultrasonography, thermography, or tomosynthesis alone or as a complement to mammography. The recommendations for early diagnosis of breast cancer (in women with suspicious signs or symptoms) were: (i) weak recommendation for the implementation of awareness-raising strategies for early diagnosis of breast cancer; (ii) weak recommendation for use of selected signs and symptoms in the current guidelines as the criterion for urgent referral to specialized breast diagnosis services; and (iii) weak recommendation that every breast cancer diagnostic workup after the identification of suspicious signs and symptoms in primary care should be done in the same referral center.

Not visiting the dentist for a routine dental check increased the chance of reporting one's own oral health as bad. In any case, the habit of visiting for dental 'checkup, once per year or once every 2 years was associated with nearly all the individuals perceiving his/her oral health positively. However, in order to gather more solid scientific data to guide public policies it is necessary to perform longitudinal studies, especially experiments in different populations focused mainly on the socioeconomic characteristics and dental clinical conditions.