Journal of Oral Health and Oral Epidemiology
Volume:6 Issue: 1, Winter 2017

This study aims to explore the co-authorship in School of Dentistry at Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Iran, in three levels; individuals, other schools of KUU, and beyond the university.
This is a cross-sectional study which is a part of a larger study conducted from September 2014 to December 2014. A comprehensive search in Scopus was conducted to find related articles published in 2013 by following these steps; first of all, a complete list of all faculties, based on the school and the department they worked in, was obtained. Second, all articles indexed with the affiliation of KMU were retrieved, using both keywords of “Kerman Medical University” and KUM Sciences.” The data were analyzed using Social Network Analysis and Visone software.
The results showed an inadequate collaboration within departments; only two of them had collaboration.
Co-authorship among departments illustrated a more satisfactory picture: although, it still has more rooms for improvement. Regarding collaboration between the Dentistry School and other schools of the university, the School of Dentistry is in a middle position, though it could have had more potential relationships. The School of Dentistry formed a few relationships with the organizations outside of the university.
Our study suggests that there are more rooms for improvement in the field of collaboration and co-authoring papers, which could consequently not only lead to a higher rate of publication and visibility but also affect the citation rates for authors.

Oral health is an integral part of general health. Between the different medical professions, pharmacists are one of the groups who encounter patients seeking consultation in the oral health field a lot. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the knowledge and practice of pharmacists in Kerman, Iran, toward oral health.
All pharmacists were invited to participate in the study after being informed about the aims of the study. A validated questionnaire with six sections including demographic data, oral hygiene behavior of the participants, the pharmacies’ specifications and products related to oral health, questions related to knowledge, questions related to practice, and questions related to the participants’ assessment were filled out by the participants. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS software, and descriptive results were presented in tables and charts. The chi-square statistical tests were used to explore any association between variables.
Data were analyzed for 81 participants. Most of the participants were male and the mean age was 38 ± 10. The pharmacists’ mean knowledge of oral health was 6.5 out of 10 which places them in the medium knowledge range. The performance of pharmacists when encountering oral problems was prescribing analgesics in 79% of cases for tooth aches. There was no statistically significant difference in the knowledge score between different age and gender groups (P = 0.500).
The results show a medium knowledge of pharmacists on oral health topics. Considering their own desire plans to train and educate in oral health fields to promote oral health seem necessary.

This study was designed to assess the correlation between chronological age and modified Demirjian estimated dental age.
Panoramic radiographs of 183 Patients between 13.5 and 20.5 years old were assessed for the developmental stage of lower right third molars. Student’s t-test was used to measure the same hypothesis of the chronological age and estimated modified Demirjian dental age described above and Pearson's correlation coefficient was used to measure the linear correlation between them.
The result of the test at a significance level of 95% led to the hypothesis. There was not any significant difference between estimated dental age measured by chronological age compared to modified Demirjian method (P = 0.81). Pearson correlation coefficient between dental age in modified Demirjian's method and chronological age was calculated 40%.
The mean dental age in both male and female, was calculated 0.33 years less than chronological age.

Fluoride varnish as an extrinsic factor may cause discoloration in tooth-colored restorative materials. This research compared the impact of different fluoride varnishes on color change of a composite restorative material.
This laboratory experimental study was conducted on 40 specimens of flowable composite resin were divided into four groups based on the brand of applied varnishes (Durashield, Nupro, Fluorilaque, and Profluoride varnishes) (n = 10). Color measuring (ΔE) was performed using the easy shade device and according to Commission Internationale de l’Eclairage (CIE) L*a*b* system at three times: 24 hours after immersing in artificial salvia (baseline), 24 hours after fluoride varnishes application and after brushing. The amount of color changes was calculated for all of the specimens as follows: ΔE1 (difference between fluoride application-base line), ΔE2 (difference between brushing-fluoride application), and ΔE3 (difference between brushing-base line). P The maximum and minimum color changes after applying varnishes were observed by Nupro and Profluoride, respectively. A significant difference was observed between ΔE 1 values of all types of studied varnishes (P Trends of color change after using all studied varnishes were clinically acceptable (ΔE

Protective equipment, such as lead aprons and thyroid shields, is effective in reducing patient radiation. This study was conducted for evaluation the use of thyroid shields and lead aprons in dental offices, in Kerman, Iran, in June 2014.
In this descriptive-analytical study, 106 dental offices with active X-ray machines were evaluated in Kerman. The information was recorded on a data sheet consisting of eight questions in three fields of the rate of the use of lead aprons, thyroid shields and taking part in radiation protection courses. Data were evaluated using frequency distribution and chi-squared test.
In this study, 12.3% of clinics were equipped with lead aprons but only 5.7% used them for all the patients. Only 10.4% of Kerman Dental Clinics had thyroid shields. Approximately, 9.7% of Kerman dentists had participated in continuous retraining courses on radiation protection. There was a significant relationship between clinics equipped with lead aprons with more job experience.
The results showed that the rate of the use of lead aprons and thyroid shields in dental clinics equipped with X-ray machines in Kerman is not sufficient and is far from the international standards. Therefore, it is suggested that radiation protection equipment be promoted and oral and dental radiologists be responsible for the use of such equipment in their clinics.

Pain control is an important part of pediatric dentistry. The purpose of this study was to evaluate pain and behavioral reaction who receive an injection with conventional and telescopic dental needles.
A total of 50 healthy children aged 4-8 years were included to this study to get a dental injection with the telescopic or the conventional dental needles. Two observers scored videos of children at the time of injection procedures based on sound, eye, motor (SEM) scale and distress reaction to evaluate the observed pain-related behavior. Children completed a face version of visual analog scale (VAS) after injection. Reliability of observer’s opinion evaluated and was established at 96%. Independent t-test and chi-square tests were used for statistical analysis. Statistical significance was defined at P This study was conducted among 23 girls and 27 boys with mean age 5.3 ± 1.4. The pain scores according to VAS for the telescopic, and the conventional dental needles were 40.20 ± 10.50 and 56.40 ± 14.63, respectively, which was statistically significant between the two groups (P = 0.0001). The difference of SEM values for the telescopic and the conventional groups were statistically significant in totals as well as individual parameters (P = 0.0001). According to mean distress scores, patients showed less muscle tension, less verbal protest and less movement when receiving the telescopic needles (P Telescopic dental needles with the ability of using topical anesthesia before needle insertion and covering needle sight out of patient’s eyes may be a good intervention to reduce pain and anxiety of children during dental injection.

Dental caries is a chronic disease with a high prevalence despite its preventability. Untreated dental caries can cause substantial pain and suffering, and imposes a significant public health and economic burden. Our aim was to determine how prevalent and sever dental caries are among school children between 6 to 12 years of age from a mixed population (Jordanians and Syrian refugees) at Mafraq Governorate, Northeast of Jordan, as well as to evaluate their habits with regards to oral hygiene.
The survey was a cross-sectional study conducted on 1286 public school children. All students were examined using a mirror and lit probe with a dental unit for decay-missing-fillings for deciduous teeth (dmft) and decay-missing–fillings for permanent teeth (DMFT); oral hygiene habits were also recorded.
Among 1286 school children, 21.1% were Syrian refugees. The caries prevalence was 78.7% with dmft ranges from 2.3-4.4 and DMFT ranges from 0.4-1.8. There were significant caries indices (SiC) of 7.0 and 2.7 for deciduous teeth and permanent teeth, respectively. About 29.2 % of the students never brushed their teeth, and 93.3% did not have any previous dental treatment. All tested indicators of oral health status were worse among Syrian refugee students compared to Jordanian students, although this difference was not statistically significant.
The caries prevalence in this age group in Mafraq was very high. One-third of the examined students had very high deft and DMFT scores, which reflected negligence of children oral health. Untreated dental caries was the main component of DMFT scores among the examined population, indicating lack of dental care services for those children, especially for refugees.

Giant cell lesions as a group of the oral and maxillofacial lesions are common and potentially destructive. The aim of this study was to assess the frequency of oral lesions containing giant cells in a 22-year period in Isfahan Dental School, Iran.
In this epidemiological, cross-sectional, retrospective study the archive information in the Department of Oral Pathology, School of Dentistry between 1991 and 2012 was used. All information obtained from the patients records with giant cell lesions [peripheral giant cell granuloma (PGCG), central giant cell granuloma (CGCG), aneurysmal bone cyst, and Cherubism and Brown tumor] were analyzed using SPSS, chi-square test and Fisher (P Of the 8217 cases with pathology records, 591 cases (7.1%) were giant cell lesions. The most common lesion was PGCG (68.5%). The prevalence of lesions in the mandible was more than the maxilla (P = 0.039), and also the prevalence of these lesions in woman was slightly more than men (P = 0.078).
The giant cell lesions were more common in women and in the mandible. They were seen more frequently in the second decade of life. Regards the results of this study, we can prevent PGCG using methods such as improvement of oral hygiene.