صدیقه ابراهیمی پور

Medical ethics education is very vital to maintaining legality and maintain public trust in dentistry. Therefore, this study aimed to measure the knowledge, attitude, and practice of medical ethics of Birjand dental faculty students in 2021.

In this descriptive-analytical cross-sectional study, 117 dental students who passed or were passing the medical ethics unit participated. The data was collected using a questionnaire consisting of two sections (demographic information and questions related to the areas of knowledge, attitude and performance). The knowledge and attitude were measured through a questionnaire that was used in previous studies and its validity and reliability were confirmed. Performance was measured using a researcher-made questionnaire, the reliability of which was obtained by Cronbach's alpha method of 0.78. Data analysis was done using Independent Samples T-tests, One-way analysis of variance, Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests at the significance level of 0.05.

The mean score of students' knowledge, attitude, and practices was 34.11 ± 6.09, 47.07 ± 5.73, and 31.74 ± 6.02, respectively. There was a significant relationship between performance and attitude of students (r = 0.403, P < 0.05). Furthermore, there was a significant difference in the mean score of attitudes according to gender (p = 0.020), female students had a higher mean score of attitudes than males.

Based on the study's results, despite good knowledge, students' attitudes and performance are at an average level. Therefore, proper education on dental ethics among students, especially male students, seems necessary.

Antioxidants can prevent oxidative damage caused by increased production of free radicals in oral and dental diseases. In this research, the total antioxidant capacity (TAC) of saliva in patients with acute apical abscess before and after root canal treatment was investigated and compared with a control group.

In this case-control study, salivary antioxidant levels of 20 patients with acute apical abscess were collected before and three weeks after root canal treatment. Also, 20 healthy people (without tooth decay and abscess and without any systemic diseases) were considered as the control group. The ferric reducing ability of plasma (FRAP) was used to measure total antioxidant in the saliva samples and the TAC was evaluated. Then, all data were analyzed in SPSS V16.

The mean salivary TAC in the case group was 298.8±174.9 µmol/L before treatment and 450.9±145.2 µmol/L after treatment (P=0.009). However, there was no significant difference in the TAC between the case group after root canal treatment and the control group (P=0.056).

This study showed that effective treatment of acute apical abscess can increase the overall antioxidant capacity, reduce oxidative stress, and have an effective role in repairing the damage caused by the activity of free radicals.

This study aimed to evaluate the effects of education of proper oral hygiene via virtual reality simulation on the dental plaque in high school students.

This study was carried out on 90 high school students who were selected randomly and then divided into three groups. Group one was the first intervention group (VR) that was introduced to oral hygiene through virtual reality training in one session (n=30). Group two was the second intervention group (Verbal) that was introduced to oral hygiene through verbal training in one session (n=30). Group three was the control group that received no training (n=30). Plaque index (PI) was recorded both before and after the intervention (after one month) using Quigley–Hein plaque index. Data were collected and then analyzed in SPSS software (version 18) at a significance level of 0.05.

In the VR group, there was a statistically significant decrease in the mean values of PI (P<0.001) after the intervention (1.92±0.77) in comparison to the baseline (2.69±0.62). Moreover, in the verbal training group, there was a statistically significant decrease in the mean values of PI (P=0.014) after the intervention (2.16±0.95), compared to the baseline (2.45±0.91). This difference was significant in the virtual reality and oral education group compared to the control group (P<0.001).

Based on the findings, oral health education in general and virtual reality education, in particular, are effective in the removal of dental plaque and improvement of oral health.

Adopting the academic lifestyle environment، as a new life style، make the using of advisors unavoidable for students. The aim of the present study is to investigate Students'' perspective about duties and performances of academic advisors in the school of Health of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences in 2013.

In this descriptive and cross- sectional study، 97 students were selected using stratified and simple sampling method. A the researcher made questionnaire including 34 items in 3 fields، which has been designed for each duties and performances of academic advisors from the students'' perspective، were used to gather data which has been analyzed using descriptive statistics، t-test and ANOVA by SPSS 16. 5 at 0. 05 significant level.

The main duties of advisors from the students perspective، respectively، were: to familiarize the students with rules and regulations of universities (3. 9±1. 4)، to evaluate the student’s academic achievements (3. 2±1. 4) and to prepare the students to accept the future responsibility (2. 97±1. 4). As about 10. 3% of the students ranked the advisors performance as good، 56. 7% as moderate and 33% as weak.

the students evaluated the duties of the academic advisors as important but the performance of the advisors was not satisfactory from their perspective. The counseling process should consider as a specialty task which need education and we need to facilitate the relation between University Counseling Office and the academic advisors to promote their knowledge and performance.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the tissue responses to octacalcium phosphate (OCP) and calcium hydroxide (CH) used as direct pulp capping (DPC) materials in cat teeth. 72 premolar teeth of 9 cats were selected and divided into 3 groups (Two experimental and one control group). After the cats had been anesthetized، the pulp were exposed and capped directly with OCP، CH or no capping material as control group. The cavities of all three groups were filled with Glass ionomer cement (GI). Histological evaluations were performed at two، four and eight weeks after pulp capping. After tissue preparation procedures، paraffin blocks were prepared. After preparation and staining of the sections، the relevant variables were measured by optical microscope. The results were analyzed using Mann-Whitney U and Chi-square tests (α =0. 05). Two weeks after pulp capping، all specimens in three groups showed mild to sever inflammation. The formation of hard tissue (dentinal bridge) at in the exposed areas of the experimental groups was more noticeable for calcium hydroxide than that of octacalcium phosphate group. These differences were statistically significant (P<0. 001). At four weeks، hard tissues were observed in both groups which were more evident for the CH group and there were statistically significant difference between two experimental groups (p<0. 003). At eight weeks، continuous hard tissues were observed in both groups and there were no statistically significant difference between them (P>0. 05)، but hard tissues continuity were better for in the OCP than that of the CH. It seems that the formation of hard tissue in CH because of its porosities had a worse percentage in sealing of the pulp than the OCP.