There is inconclusive evidence on the value of regular dental attendance. This study explored the relationship between long-term patterns of dental attendance and caries experience. We used retrospective data from 3,235 adults, ≥ 16 yrs of age, who participated in the Adult Dental Health Survey in the UK. Participants were classified into four groups (always, current, former, and never regular-attenders) based on their responses to three questions on lifetime dental-attendance patterns. The association between dental-attendance patterns and caries experience, as measured using the decayed, missing, or filled teeth (DMFT) index, was tested in negative binomial regression models, adjusting for demographic (sex, age, and country of residence) and socio-economic (educational attainment, household income, and social class) factors. A consistent pattern of association between long-term dental attendance and caries experience was found in adjusted models. Former and never regular-attenders had a significantly higher DMFT score and numbers of decayed and missing teeth, but fewer filled teeth, than always regular-attenders. No differences in DMFT or its components were found between current and always regular-attenders. The findings of this study show that adults with different lifetime trajectories of dental attendance had different dental statuses.
This 4-year prospective study suggests that SOC measured in adulthood does not explain change in the number of teeth with periodontal pocketing ≥ 4 mm.
Tests were carried out with an on-line travelling microscope to determine its performance in the measurement of dental casts. The results show the system to be more accurate than the current alternatives.
Pulmonary colonization with Burkholderia (Pseudomonas) cepacia in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients has been associated with high morbidity and mortality. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the dentist and the dental surgery environment become contaminated during treatment of CF patients colonized with B. cepacia. Extensive environmental sampling was carried out during aerosol-generating treatment sessions on four CF patients whose sputum was persistently colonized with B. cepacia. Samples of surgery air, and of water from the air-turbine, three-in-one syringe and their supply-lines, were tested before and after an aerosol-generating treatment session with each patient. Settle plates were placed on the bracket table and work-surfaces, and within the portable suction unit's exhaust housing unit during treatment, and swabs were obtained from various items of dental equipment at the end of treatment. Swabs of the buccal mucosa were obtained from each patient before treatment, and from the dentist before and after treatment. B. cepacia was isolated from the swabs of three of the patients, but not from those taken from the dentist or from any of the environmental samples. The results suggest that CF patients colonized with B. cepacia appear to constitute a low risk for environmental contamination and are unlikely to be an important means of transmission between CF patients.
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