Objective: The current study aimed at determining and characterizing the oral hygiene habits and behaviors of a subset of Pakistani population seeking dental care at a private hospital in Karachi. Study Design: Cross-sectional survey. Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted in the department of Oral Medicine and Diagnosis in Dental Out-Patient-Department of Ziauddin University Karachi from January 2022 to July 2022. Methodology: A total of 530 adult males and females who visited Ziauddin Dental Out-patient-department (OPD) were recruited using non-probability consecutive sampling, as a representative sample of the Pakistani population. After obtaining an informed consent, interviews using a structured questionnaire were conducted. Data analysis was performed with SPSS version 22. Results: The majority of the subjects interviewed (58.3%) use toothbrush, while 5.8% use miswak, 23.2% use both toothbrush and miswak, and 5.5% use their fingers to clean their teeth. There was no significant difference in selection of oral hygiene device between genders, age groups, level of education, and social economic status. To clean interdental areas, majority participants use toothpicks (39.6%), 13.4% use dental floss, 4.5% use interdental brush while 34.1% use none. 14.3% of the participants reported that they use a mouth-rinse. Conclusion: An assessment of oral hygiene practices serves as a guide for designing effective health education programs that fulfils the periodontal requirements of the target population. Efforts should be made to promote the correct brushing techniques and timings and implement the usage of interdental cleaning aids. Keywords: dental health education, miswak, toothbrushing, floss, mouth rinse
Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a great deal of commentary about the airborne spread of the disease. It is of special concern for dentists as most dental procedures generate a significant amount of aerosols and droplets. Given such high risk and inevitable aerosol production in dentistry, special precautions and protective measures to ensure the safe delivery of dental treatment are directed. To ensure negligence-free dental practice, in addition to the standard protective procedures and measures, a high vacuum extra oral dental suction system is a mandated dental armamentarium. Aims and Objectives: Most commercially available vacuum aspirators are pricey and require special units with which they can work. In a country like Pakistan, where an expensive armamentarium is neither available nor easily affordable, we present an economical yet effective, high volume extra oral dental suction system for the dental offices which does not require a heavy monetary investment. Equipment: An in-house alternate to the commercially available extra oral aspirator is introduced here. We devised a make-shift extra oral aerosol aspirator that can be effortlessly assembled with the materials easily available around dental offices. Result: When tried in use, the aerosol and spatter were eliminated through the cone-shaped oil key and collected into the collection bin as observed visually. The equipment, due to its high vacuum suction capability, sucks the aerosol and splatter from the working area to the collection cone. Conclusion: Post COVID-19, we can expect a lot of changes in the infection control practices and guidelines. The use of extra oral vacuum aspiration along with the conventional protocol has been recommended to protect both the dental staff and the patients as the high vacuum extra oral aspirator may offer a way to reduce the generated aerosol particulate
Background: Increased prevalence of gingival diseases in thalassemia patients has been consistently reported. In diseases with neutrophil dysfunctions, periodontal tissue is lost very rapidly. \(\beta\)-thalassemia major (TM- \(\beta\)) patients exhibit defective neutrophils and macrophages. Therefore, supplementary gingival inflammation is detrimental to periodontal tissues in these patients. This warrants attention to specialized oral health care intervention in these patients. This is the pioneer pre and post study that evaluates the effect of non-surgical periodontal therapy (NSPT) in \(\beta\)-thalassemia major (TM- \(\beta\)) patients with gingivitis. And also reports the prevalence and distribution of disease severity in TM- \(\beta\)patients. Methods: 31 patients (15 females, 16 males) fulfilling the inclusion criteria were provided with protocol guided NSPT including scaling, polishing and chemical mouthrinse (0.2% CHX). Gingival index (GI), plaque score, Papillary bleeding index (PI) and periodontal pocket depth (PPD) were recorded with a periodontal probe (UNC-15) at baseline and evaluated after 6 weeks of intervention. Paired T-test was applied for GI, PBI and plaque and Wilcoxon signed rank test for PPD at the P-value of <0.05 Results: 86% of the assessed individuals had gingivitis (6% -mild, 44%- moderate and 36% - severe). NSPT showed highly significant (P - <0.000) improvement from baseline to 6 weeks after intervention for all the clinical parameters, GI, PBI, plaque score and PPD. Conclusion: Within the limitations of the study, the results show that with proper protocol, multidisciplinary approach and careful screening of the patient’s systemic status, TM-\(\beta\)patients with gingivitis respond positively to local measures of plaque control.
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