The aim of this study was to investigate the perceived sources of stress and the role of parents in its etiology among dental students in a private dental school in India. A modified Dental Environment Stress (DES) Questionnaire was administered to 256 dental students. The main sources of stress were found to be fear of facing parents after failure, full loaded day, and fear of failing course or year. Students whose first choice of admission was dentistry experienced less stress than students whose first choice was another field. Also the students who joined dentistry due to parental pressure showed greater stress than those who joined of their own accord. Male students experienced greater stress than females. The results of this study indicate that a congenial environment needs to be created for dental education and parents also need to be counseled against forcing their children to join an educational program that is not of their choice.Dr. Acharya is Assistant Professor, Department of Community Dentistry, Bapuji Dental College and Hospital. Direct correspondence to him at 1-2-50 B Bhagyashree, Kunjibettu, Udupi 576 102, India; 08252-527031 phone; 94481-27031 cell; shashidhar_acharya@yahoo.com.

Objectives To assess the effectiveness of school‐based interventions to prevent early childhood caries (ECC) among preschool children from very low socioeconomic background over a period of 2 years. Materials and methods Four hundred and twenty preschool children between the ages of 3–5 years participated in this double blind, three parallel arm clinical trial. School only interventions such as prohibition of sugary snack consumption in school, teacher supervised daily brushing using fluoridated toothpaste, and oral health education were implemented with regular follow‐up at 6 months, 1, and 2 years. The study group had all three interventions, in active control‐tooth brushing and oral health education, and in negative control, only oral health education. Decay at d1/d2 using World Health Organization criteria, visible plaque and gingival inflammation were assessed at all follow‐ups. The value of P < 0.05 was considered significant. Results Absolute caries risk reduction in the study group was 20 percent and 12 percent when compared to active, negative controls after 2 years. Mean caries increment in the study group was 0.4 for d1/d2, for the active control group was 0.9 and negative control 0.8. The effect of interventions to prevent ECC in each group was calculated using the Çohen's d, and the study group had a score of 0.6 when compared with active controls and 0.9 in comparison to the negative control group. Conclusions Prohibition of sugary snacking in school and daily supervised tooth brushing, with or without oral health education is effective in preventing ECC among preschool children with health neglect in very low‐resource settings.

Objectives:The present study was undertaken to study the maternal risk factors for preterm birth (PTB) and low birth weight (LBW) with a special emphasis on assessing the proportions of maternal genitourinary and periodontal infections among Indian women and their association with adverse pregnancy outcomes.Methods:A hospital-based prospective study comprising 790 pregnant women visiting the obstetrics clinic for a routine antenatal check-up was undertaken. Once recruited, all study participants underwent clinical and microbiological investigations for genitourinary infections followed by a dental check-up for the presence of periodontitis. The study participants were followed up until their delivery to record the pregnancy outcomes. Infectious and non-infectious risk factors for PTB and LBW were assessed using univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis. Independent risk factors for PTB and LBW were reported in terms of adjusted relative risk (ARR) with the 95% confidence interval (CI).Results:Rates of PTB and LBW in the study population were 7.6% and 11.4%, respectively. Previous preterm delivery (ARR, 5.37; 95% CI, 1.5 to 19.1), periodontitis (ARR, 2.39; 95% CI, 1.1 to 4.9), Oligohydramnios (ARR, 5.23; 95% CI, 2.4 to 11.5), presence of Nugent’s intermediate vaginal flora (ARR, 2.75; 95% CI, 1.4 to 5.1), gestational diabetes mellitus (ARR, 2.91; 95% CI, 1.0 to 8.3), and maternal height <1.50 m (ARR, 2.21; 95% CI, 1.1 to 4.1) were risk factors for PTB, while periodontitis (ARR, 3.38; 95% CI, 1.6 to 6.9), gestational hypertension (ARR, 3.70; 95% CI, 1.3 to 10.8), maternal height <1.50 m (ARR, 2.66; 95% CI, 1.3 to 5.1) and genital infection during later stages of pregnancy (ARR, 2.79; 95% CI, 1.2 to 6.1) were independent risk factors for LBW.Conclusions:Our study findings underscore the need to consider screening for potential genitourinary and periodontal infections during routine antenatal care in developing countries.

The purpose of this study was to describe the possible factors that may affect dental anxiety and beliefs and to validate and test the psychometric properties of the Modified Dental Anxiety Scale (MDAS) and a Modified Dental Beliefs Scale (MDBS) among the patients attending a university dental clinic in India. A cross-sectional study design was used. A total of 482 general dental patients attending a university dental clinic returned completed forms of the Indian translations of the MDAS and MDBS. General information about the age, sex, occupation and educational qualifications of the respondents as well as information about past dental experiences was also collected. All the statistical analysis was carried out by the spss (version 10) statistical software package. The Indian translations of the MDAS and the MDBS were found to be internally reliable with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.78 and 0.85, respectively. Validity was demonstrated by a statistically significant correlation between the MDAS and the MDBS scores with the correlation coefficient of 0.47. Age was also inversely related to dental anxiety. Anxiety scores were higher among the less educated patients. Those who had a prior unpleasant dental experience showed higher dental anxiety and more negative dental beliefs. The data obtained in this study provided strong evidence for the psychometric properties of the Indian version of the MDAS and the MDBS.

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