Juice box-type fruit juices reduced the hardness of direct tooth-colored restorative materials. Material selection should be considered when planning restorations in patients who have experienced tooth surface loss. In terms of the materials evaluated in this study, the composite material provides greater durability under acidic conditions.

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MTA is equivalent to vitremer in preventing microleakage when used as retrograde filling material.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to compare the mental health effects and attitude of male and female patients visiting Dental OPD during the COVID-19 pandemic. Materials and methods: This Descriptive study was conducted amongst patients visiting dental setup of Jinnah Sindh medical university and Jinnah postgraduate center. Consent was taken before participation in the study. Patients visiting dental OPD (SIOHS and JPMC) were requested to fill the hardcopy of the questionnaire. Co-authors translated and filled the questionairre for those patients who were unable to read and write. Mental health status and attitude regarding COVID-19 were assessed through closed-ended questions. Results: Compared to males, females were more afraid of becoming infected with COVID-19 (p-value 0.018), affected more emotionally with COVID-19 pandemic (p-value 0.042), were wearing mask more frequently (p-value 0.038) and were more afraid dental treatment due to COVID-19 (p-value 0.023). With increase in qualification there was increase in COVID-19 fear (p-value 0.028), emotional effect (p-value 0.000) and effect on daily routine (p-value 0.002).   Conclusion: Majority of the participants visiting the dental OPD were unaware of the preventive measures to protect themselves from COVID-19. As compared to males, female patients were more concerned and had a positive attitude towards protection from COVID-19. Furthermore, this attitude was more in people who were more educated.

OBJECTIVE: Dental health care workers around the globe are potentially vulnerable of contracting COVID-19 disease. Many studies have investigated the presence of anxiety and mental health issues amongst the healthcare worker, especially the dental professional, during COVID-19. This study aimed to compare the anxiety of dental postgraduate trainees of different specialties towards COVID-19. METHODOLOGY: An online questionnaire comprising 11 items was forwarded to dental postgraduate (PGs) trainees in Karachi for specialties of Endodontics/Operative Dentistry, Oral Surgery, Prosthodontics and Orthodontics. Responses to 9 questions were recorded on a 3-point Likert scale, where ‘Agree’ indicated anxiety and ‘Disagree’ showed no anxiety. Questions also inquired PGs opinion about the specialty and dental procedures which they perceived to have the greatest risk of infection. RESULTS: Almost 62% of responses by the participants affirmed their anxiety as demonstrated by their reply to various questions based on Likert scale. Gender (p =0.012) and marital status (p= 0.036) revealed significant difference with respect to anxiety related to closure of dental OPD in face of second wave of COVID-19 and treatment cost if infected, respectively.Treatments like ultrasonic scaling (84%) and endodontics (79%) while training in specialty of Endodontics/Operative Dentistry (88%) and Oral Surgery (69%) were considered having greatest risk to contract COVID-19. CONCLUSION: Anxiety was expressed among trainees of all dental specialties, with training in specialties of Endodontics and Oral Surgery considered at the highest risk of contracting COVID-19, with ultrasonic scaling and endodontics regarded as most risky procedures. KEYWORDS: Anxiety, COVID-19, Endodontics/Operative Dentistry, Oral Surgery, Orthodontics, Prosthodontics.

OBJECTIVE: To gain an insight into cross infection protocols being followed by dental postgraduate residents in the prevention of the spread of coronavirus. METHODOLOGY: A cross-sectional survey-based study was conducted using questionnaires, which were distributed among dental postgraduate residents working in different public and private institutes in Karachi, through social media. Data was analysed using SPSS, version 21.0 with p-value <0.05 to determine significant differences between both sectors. RESULTS: Ninety seven residents from both institutes responded. 60 (93.75%) and 29 (87.87%) residents from the public and private institutes respectively, reported to having the patient's temperature checked with an infrared thermometer. However, a lower compliance was noted in regard to the use of hand sanitization with a hydro alcoholic solution by both institutes with 28 (43.75%) from public and 24 (72.72%) from private institutes. 11 (17.18%) residents from public institutes responding with disposal of PPE after every patient, whereas 1 (3.03%) resident from a private institute responded with disposal after every patient. However, due to a smaller sample size, the differences were not statistically significant. CONCLUSION: The pandemic has exposed numerous shortcomings in the dental healthcare system, regardless of the sector. Since COVID-19 is likely to become an endemic, compliance with cross infection protocols needs to be improved so as to prevent its rapid spread. In a third world country like Pakistan, where resources are already scarce, greater emphasis needs to be placed on funding the dental healthcare system to enhance basic cross infection controls.

Objective: To compare the microleakage around resin modified glass ionomer cement (RMGIC) based sealants and flowable resin based sealants placed with or without ameloplasty in extracted human teeth. Methods: This in-vitro experimental study was conducted at the Operative Dentistry Department, Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi, Pakistan from June 2017 to December 2018. Sixty extracted human molars and premolars were assigned to four groups (n=15) each, according to the type of fissure sealant (flowable resin based sealant or resin modified glass ionomer based sealant) used and either placed with or without ameloplasty. Specimens were thermocycled and then immersed in 1% methylene blue for 24 hours. Specimens were then sectioned and examined using stereo-microscope (50X) for microleakage that was scored on an ordinal scale. Mann-Whitney U test and Ordinal regression were applied. Level of significance kept at 0.05. Results: There was a statistically significant difference (p-value <0.001) between the two sealant types for the microleakage scores. Sealants placed with ameloplasty demonstrated significantly higher microleakage values (p-value <0.001). Conclusion: Microleakage was found to be more pronounced in RMGIC based sealants compared to the resin based sealants. Ameloplasty resulted in higher leakage around the sealants irrespective of the chemistry of material. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.36.3.1268 How to cite this:Khan TN, Khan FR, Abidi SYA. Ameloplasty is counterproductive in reducing microleakage around Resin Modified Glass Ionomer and Resin based fissure sealants. Pak J Med Sci. 2020;36(3):---------. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.36.3.1268 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.