Objective: The objective of the study was to determine the most common speech impairments among mouth breathing (MB) children and to assess the relationship between them in terms of etiology, gender, clinical symptoms, clinical findings, and dental traits. Materials and Methods: A total of 498 mouth-breathers, both male and female, aged 9–17 years, were screened for allergic rhinitis (AR), adenoid hypertrophy (AH), and/or functional mouth breathing (FM). The subjects were assessed by a team that included an otorhinolaryngologist, an allergologist, an orthodontist, and a speech pathologist. Results: MB was associated with AR, AH, FM, and orofacial myofunctional disorders (OMD). AR was the most common etiology, followed by FM. Further, 81.7% of the children had speech disorders such as speech sound problems, fluency disorders, and voice disorders. A statistically significant association was found between etiology, OMD, and speech alterations. Males had a statistically highly significant frequency of speech abnormalities than females. Frontal lisp was found in 36.1%, followed by stuttering (19.2%). In 10.6% of the children, two or more speech impediments occurred simultaneously. There was also a statistically significant association between various speech abnormalities and malocclusion. Conclusion: The findings of the study suggested that articulation disorders were frequently associated with MB children. It emphasizes the necessity of monitoring MB children through a multidisciplinary approach to prevent the adverse effects of MB and improve the overall development of individuals.
Objectives: The study sought to ascertain the prevalence; various methods used for self-ear cleaning practice and identify injuries during self-ear cleaning malpractice among medical students. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study with an online validated questionnaire conducted electronically from January to October 2022 among first, second, third, fourth and fifth-year medical students at Qassim University, including males and females in Qassim Region, Saudi Arabia. The study sample consisted of 386 participants: Males (n=202; 52.3%) and females (n=184; 47.7%). The distribution on the level of education was 1st year (n=85; 22%), 2nd year (n=67; 17.4%), 3rd year (n=81; 21%), 4th year (n=66; 17.1%) and 5th year (n=87; 22.5%). Results: The prevalence of self-ear cleaning practices among medical students is 83.2%, males (78%) and females (89%). The association between self-ear cleaning and experiencing ear or damage to the eardrum had no significant finding (χ² (1) = 0.017, p = 0.895). The students in the study acknowledge that they experienced different forms of ear symptoms. In terms of ear symptoms, itching was the most common (32.9%), followed by earache (27.2%) and a feeling of fullness (26.2%). The least frequent symptoms were vertigo (7%) and ear discharge (7.5%). Overall, there were significant differences between the methods used to clean the ears especially ear buds (93%) were the most common method. Conclusion:Our study demonstrates that, despite senior medical students' knowledge of medicine, self-ear cleaning still exists. This brings to a close the widespread lack of knowledge regarding how the ear naturally cleans itself.Therefore, the study advises highlighting the requirement for a medical education program on the issues with public health brought on by self-ear cleaning.
BackgroundCholesteatoma is described as the accumulation of squamous epithelium and keratinocytes within and around the middle ear cleft. There is a paucity of information regarding demographic and treatment outcomes for cholesteatoma in Saudi Arabia. An evaluation of the prevalence of comorbidities, complications and associations, of surgical treatment and demographics in the Qassim region was conducted. MethodsThis was a six-year retrospective review of patients treated for cholesteatoma at a private health facility, from August 2016 to July 2022. Data for age, gender, nationality, presence of comorbidities, type of surgery, type of anesthesia, and associated complications were collected from the electronic medical records and analyzed with Statistical Package for Social Sciences software. ResultsA total of 60 participants records were retrieved. The average age of the study population was ([43.2 ±SD] 21.8) years. There was a slightly higher male preponderance (males 51.7% and females 48.3%). Hypertension was the most commonly reported comorbidity (31.7%), followed by diabetes mellitus (25%). Age and gender were not statistically significantly associated with type of surgery or complications. ConclusionDemographic variables were not significantly associated with clinical correlates, however, further studies with larger sample sizes, robust clinical information, and long-term follow-up are required.
Introduction: Eustachian tube dysfunction (ETD) is a well-known co-morbid manifestation of inflammatory diseases of the nasal cavity. Allergic rhinitis (AR) is a common chronic condition that causes a significant amount of disease burden in the population. However, studies on ETD in patients with AR are still very limited. Materials and methods: A total of 60 healthy and 60 AR patients participated in the prospective comparative study. All of the subjects were subjected to a skin prick test. According to ARIA criteria, the severity of AR was classified as "mild" or "moderate-severe" and "persistent" or "intermittent." Eustachian Tube Dysfunction Questionnaire (ETDQ-7) subjective scores were obtained for both groups. For objective examinations, nasal cytology, Tympanometry, and Tubomanometry were used, and the data were statistically analyzed. Results: The mean eosinophil and neutrophil counts in nasal smears demonstrated a significant difference between the two groups. In the AR and control groups, the overall ETDQ-7 score was 21.6 and 9.7 respectively (p<0.001). Tympanometry reports that ETD was significantly higher in the AR group (83.3%) than in the control group (p<0.001). TMM also established that 84.2% of AR subjects had ETD, which was statistically significant.
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