Journal of Oral Health and Oral Epidemiology
Volume:7 Issue: 1, Winter 2018

This study was conducted with the aim to investigate the knowledge and clinical judgment of Iranian general dentists and related factors on the diagnosis and treatment plan of vertical root fracture (VRF).
A questionnaire was distributed among 300 general dentists who attended in Iranian General Dentists Association (IGDA) congress in 2015. The questionnaire comprised of demographic information and nine closed-end questions on the knowledge on VRFs and different treatment options and seven photographs for clinical judgment evaluation. The answers to all questions were assessed and data were analyzed by chi-square test.
271 individuals (50.7% men and 49.3% women) participated in the study and responded the questions of the questionnaire correctively. Of the subjects, 88.3% and 76.3% had low to moderate clinical judgment and knowledge about vertically fractured teeth, respectively. The correlation between knowledge of participants attending in short endodontic courses was higher than that of those not attended in these courses; the difference between these two groups was statistically significant (P = 0.0005). The correlation between clinical judgment, gender, past clinical activity, attendance in short endodontic courses, and field of clinical interest among participants was not significantly different (P = 0.1900).
It seems that knowledge and clinical judgment are weak among general dentists requiring serious improvement. Fortunately, short endodontic courses may improve their knowledge of diagnosis and interventions related to teeth undergoing VRF.

The first step to improve research in a society is a true understanding of abilities, available possibilities, and also the strengths and weakness of research projects. The purpose of this study was to survey the students’ ideas about research challenges and opportunities among dental students of Kerman, Iran.
In this qualitative action research, personal and group depth interviews with students of 3rd to 6th-year of the study were performed. The data were collected by interview and focus group discussions, and oral explanations, and ideas of interviewees were recorded. In these interviews, the questions were about the quality of research performance, the procedure of completing the plans and thesis, and research challenges and opportunities. Performed interviews were depth, unstructured, and semi-structured interviews. After recording, the interviews were written by an undergraduate dental student, and participants’ ideas were reviewed separately and coded by two researchers and continued to data saturation phase. Finally, data were analyzed and classified by content analyze, and the number of participants was specified.
Totally, in this study, the most of research challenges and opportunities were lack of teacher’s tendency to research works, little motivation of students, not enough information and little knowledge of students about the value of research work and plans, not encouraging the students to search the subject, not training, incorrect projects about research work, lack of proper site in college, lack of research atmosphere in college, not emphasizing on research, and few number of researcher teachers. Also, no interviewee mentioned the factors such as research opportunities in dental university.
Various personal, intra-institutional, extra-institutional, modality and attitude factors are barriers to research, based on the opinions of students. It should be pointed out that in this research nobody mentioned the factors like research opportunities as the barrier of research.

The present study was carried out with the aim to evaluate the salivary glucose levels among children with early childhood caries (ECC) compared to a group of healthy children without any caries and help control ECC.
55 children with an age range of 5-6 years were selected from some kindergartens. Then the subjects were divided into two groups of with ECC & without ECC as test and control groups, respectively, then they referred to the Pediatric Dentistry, School of Dentistry, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran. The salivary samples were collected from the subjects at 8 to 9 in the morning and sent to the laboratory to determine the salivary glucose levels. Data were analyzed using t-test with a significance level of P The mean salivary glucose level among girls and boys with ECC were 0.11 ± 0.06 and 0.15 ± 0.12 mmol/l, respectively, with 0.11 ± 0.07 for girls and 0.13 ± 0.05 mmol/l for boys in the control group. There was no significant difference between ECC and control groups in terms of the salivary glucose levels (P = 0.61).
The present study showed no significant difference in the salivary glucose levels among children with ECC and the control subjects.

Regarding the prevalence of molar incisor hypomineralization (MIH) among students and different populations and continuation of related problems, it seems necessary to assess the prevalence among students in Kerman, Iran. The aim of this study was to review the prevalence of MIH and its relation to the sex of 7-12-year-old students in Kerman during 2015-2016.
In this cross-sectional study, 779 students from different schools of Kerman were studied after examination. We used a checklist to keep the record of MIH cases, which was filled by an inspector. Discolored (milky white or yellow and brown) teeth were counted as defective. Diagnosis of the MIH was done on basis of similar studies. After extracting the results, the data were analyzed by SPSS software, considering the sex of participants. The confidence interval (CI) of 95% was considered.
The prevalence of MIH was 6.5% among the studied students (51 students were diagnosed). There was no significant relationship between MIH and the students’ sex. Among the 169 obviously defective teeth, the most prevalence was for lower right molar (54.9%), upper right central (52.9%), and lower left molar (49.0%).
Although the prevalence of MIH among the students was relatively low, it seems that awareness among the students and their parents’ needs to be enhanced so that they can take better actions for the treatment of the defective teeth.

First permanent molar teeth (FPMT) erupt slowly and without any side effects among the 6-8 year old children. Sweet snacks consumption, parents’ unawareness about existence of these teeth and lack of attention to oral health care cause early caries among children in these ages. First permanent molars (FPMs) have a very important role in oral cavity among children. Therefore, missing of these teeth causes serious mastication and dental problems. In the present study, mother's knowledge on the presence of FPMs in their children’s mouth and its effect on health of these teeth were evaluated.
In this cross sectional study, 350 elementary school students of the 1st and 2nd grades and their mothers from Yasuj, Iran, were evaluated in 2015-2016. After sampling, questionnaires were used for data collection and were filled out by mothers. Then, each student was visited separately and the decayed, missing, and filled teeth (DMFT) index of FPMs was registered. Data were analyzed statistically using independent samples t-test, Mann-Whitney test and Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient.
The results showed that the difference between mothers’ knowledge score about the presence of FPMs in their children’s mouth was not significant regarding their education level, occupation and age. The same result was obtained after evaluation of DMFT index of children’s FPMT.
Mothers’ education about methods of dental caries prevention and protective oral health care is essential.

First permanent molar (FPM) has an important role in occlusion and biting. FPM is susceptible to dental caries due to early growth. The objective of this study was an evaluation of oral health status of FPM in terms of decayed/missing/filled teeth 6 (DMFT6) among 12-year-old children in rural areas of southern cities in Kerman, Iran.
This analytical/cross-sectional study was performed in 2016 on 564, 12-year-old students (281 girls and 283 boys). Students were randomly selected from 32 different villages of southern cities of Kerman. The DMFT index was determined using the standard method suggested by World Health Organization (WHO). The trained dentist recorded data of DMFT index and oral health status in checklist form. Data were analyzed using SPSS software. P The frequency of FPM dental caries of students was 53.12-66.04%. There was no significant difference in mean of DMFT6 among students in rural areas of 7 cities in the south of Kerman, but it was greatest in Ghaleganj (2.60) and lowest in Jiroft (1.97), respectively. Girls had more carries than boys (DMFT6 2.43 vs. 2.13) but it was not significant (P = 0.08). There was a little amount of sealant or filled FPM (0.58%). 26.24% of students had a toothbrush. 19.14% of them brushed their teeth equal or more than once daily and 37.41% of them knew that the first molar is a permanent tooth.
Study showed a high rate of caries in FPMs in 12-year-old children and poor knowledge and performance in relation to these teeth. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary to provide health, educational and dental treatment services for villages in the south of Kerman province, Iran.

In spite of different reforms and programs, the evidence indicates that Iran dental health sector has not been able to improve the dental situation and decrease the unmet needs. This study assessed the factors which affect the avoiding dental visit during one year ago because of its costs.
This cross-sectional study was performed on 1158 household heads which were selected through multi-stage sampling in Kerman, Iran, and questioned house by house using trained interviewers. The association of dichotomous outcome variables of “have you avoided or postponed dental visit during 1 years ago in spite of need because of its costs?” with 3 types of predictor variables of household heads including sex as binary predictor, age as continuous predictor, and income and education as categorical variables studied using regression logistics.
The odds ratio (OR) of avoiding dental visit because of its costs in men was 1.4 times more than women (P = 0.035). The OR decreased by 0.01 with each year increase in age (P = 0.017). Furthermore, the OR is people with incomes 267-803, 803-1339 and > 1339 USD in comparison with the heads incomes under 267 USD was 0.31, 0.02, 0.01, respectively (P = 0.001), and in people with educational level The factors of older ages, being a woman, increasing education and income level decrease the rate of avoiding a dental visit. In the absence of strong dental health insurance, these factors determine the utilization of the services which lead to horizontal inequality.

Surgical endodontics may sometimes fail despite using root-end filling materials (REFMs). In this case report, a symptomatic right maxillary first premolar underwent periradicular surgery (PS) for replacing huge rate of amalgam with mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA).
CASE REPORT: A thirty-year-old healthy woman attended with the chief complaint of recurrent swelling and abscess in the periradicular region of maxillary premolar tooth and sensitivity to percussion. She had a history of PS in the past year. Periapical radiographic images showed a huge rate of amalgam used as REFM. The PS was performed again and the amalgam was replaced with MTA. Postoperative clinical and radiographic evaluation after 2 years showed no sign of abscess and no sensitivity to percussion and periapical pathosis.
In this case report, replacing amalgam with MTA provided reasonable outcome up to 2 years after the treatment.