mina motalebnejad

Osteoporosis and periodontitis are two diseases associated with bone loss and are common among postmenopausal women. There are many contradictory results on the effect of osteoporosis on periodontal tissue. This study aimed to determine the association between osteoporosis and periodontal status in postmenopausal women.

This cross-sectional study was part of the second phase of the Amir kola Health and Aging Project (AHAP), in which 210 postmenopausal women were randomly divided into three groups (n=70 per group); normal bone density group,  osteopenic group, and osteoporotic group. Periodontal status was measured using Periodontal Disease Index (PDI), Plaque Index (PI), and Simplified Oral Hygiene Index (OHI-S). Bone mineral density (BMD) was measured by Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA). Data were analyzed in SPSS V17 applying ANOVA, Kruskal-Wallis, and Pearson correlation coefficient.

The average age of the participants was 65.24±4.36 years. There were no statistically significant differences between the mean OHI (2.26±1.40), PDI (2.76±1.42), and PI (1.23±0.87) in the osteoporotic group, and the mean OHI (2.01±1.62), PDI (2.56±1.61), and PI (1.35±0.91) in the osteopenia group, and mean OHI (1.73±1.37), PDI (2.47±1.43), and PI (1.23±0.87) in the normal group (P>0.05). The OHI, PDI, and PI had a slight but insignificant negative correlation with BMD.

According to this study, there is no link between osteoporosis and periodontal status in postmenopausal women.

Hypertension is one of the most common chronic diseases in the world. The prevalence of hypertension in the elderly is increasing. Patients with high blood pressure have to take medication throughout their lives. In this study, the relationship between antihypertensive drugs and oral health-related quality of life in the elderly was evaluated.

This modified cross-sectional study, which is the part of the second phase of the Amirkola Health and Ageing Project (AHAP), was performed on 900 elderly people. Participants included 300 people with hypertension under medical treatment, 300 people with hypertension without medication and 300 people with normal blood pressure. All patients’ blood pressure was recorded, and the standard xerostomia questionnaire and GOHAI questionnaire (Geriatric Oral Health Assessment Index) was completed for all participants. Then, the obtained data were analyzed by SPSS 17, whereby student’s t-test, ANOVA and chi square, Pearson correlation coefficient and logistic regression model were used. A p<0.05 was considered statistically significant.

The mean GOHAI score in the three studied groups: hypertensive under medication treatment, hypertensive without medication treatment and normal blood pressure (51.1±7.4, 51.7±7.3, 51.1±7.5, respectively) did not differ significantly (P=0.533).The frequency of xerostomia was significantly different in the three groups (P=0.008). Among the antihypertensive drugs, the highest rate of xerostomia was due to the use of calcium channel blockers (31.1%) and diuretics (26.8%).

In our study, although antihypertensive medications were associated with xerostomia, they did not decrease the oral health-related quality of life.

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is the most common form of diabetes, and a metabolic disorder affecting patientschr('39') general health in various ways. The present study aimed to evaluate the oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) among older adults of Amirkola, Northern Iran.

A case-control study was conducted with a sample of 500 elderly people (250 with T2DM and 250 healthy controls) who answered geriatric oral health assessment index (GOHAI) questionnaire and a questionnaire evaluating xerostomia. Then, all participants underwent clinical dental examinations. The obtained data were then analyzed by t-test, chi-square test, and Pearsonchr('39')s correlation coefficient, and p < 0.05 was considered significant.

The prevalence of xerostomia was not statistically significant between the T2DM patients and control groups (p < 0.079). Greater number of patients suffering T2DM reported xerostomia according to the records; however, the correlation between this disorder and periodontal disease index (PDI), Plaque index (PI), oral health index-simplified (OHI-S), and geriatric oral health assessment index (GOHAI) in the subjects of the two study groups was not significant (p < 0.0001).

In the present study, there was no significant relationship between GOHAI and periodontal indices, demonstrating no difference in the OHRQoL of elderly patients with T2DM and older healthy adults.

The missions of a university are education, research and social services. Because of the attention to education has been decreased in the evaluation of scientific activities, the evaluation of education should be made due to determining its effectiveness. Knowing the opinions of the postgraduate students about the features of effective teaching could have a significant effect on educational managers programing. This descriptive-analytical research was carried out as a cross-sectional study in 2017-2018 academic years. Sampling was performed by census method. Data collection tool was a questionnaire consisted of two parts of demographic data and effective teaching items in four fields of scholarship, teaching method, relationship with assistant and personal characteristics. To analyze the data, SPSS version 22 software was used and the significance level of 0.05 was considered.
FINDINGS: From the viewpoints of postgraduate students, the fields of individual characteristics and communication with the students have the most and the least importance, respectively. The mean score of the field of individual characteristics with other fields (P=0.001), the field of scholarship between male and female participants (P=0.017), the fields of relationship with the students and individual characteristics between the participants with different academic fields (P=0.009 and P=0.021, respectively), the fields of teaching method and individual characteristics between the participants with different enterance years (P=0.023 and P=0.037, respectively) and the fields of communication with the students, teaching method and individual characteristics between the participants with different total average (P=0.005, P=0.034 and P=0.008, respectively), were statistically significant. Individual characteristics of faculty members from the viewpoints of postgraduate students had the greatest impact on the effectiveness of teaching, which could be considered along with other studied fields in this study, to improve the quality of education.

An extensive body of literature exists on the student’s attitude about using power point presentation and the data refers to the importance of a standard power point presentation usage. The present study was based on evaluating the quality of power point presentations used during teaching in Babul Dental School. This cross- sectional study was performed on all faculty members at Babul Dental School. The Forty six percent of participants were male and 54% were female. In addition, the mean age of members was 37.94 ± 7.56 with 2 months to 20 years academic experienced. Then a checklist was designed according to the guidelines of a standard power point presentation and it was filled out by researchers while reviewing each power point files used during teaching. Furthermore, descriptive statistics such as mean, standard deviation, percent and count the items in each index was used for central Index. The quality of power point presentations according to age, gender and years of teaching were also analyzed by nonparametric tests (Mann-Whitney). The data demonstrated P < 0.05 as significant; whereas regarding to quantitative questions, mean score was 12.13 ± 2.76 and there were no significant different according to gender and years of teaching (p>0.05). Regarding to qualitative questions, 48% of participants used one kind of animation which reflected a significant relationship with years of teaching (p<0.05). According to the results, it indicated the quality of power point presentations utilized by study's population was relatively desirable, moreover, it was suggested to hold power point presentation workshops to improve the ability of academic members in preparing perfect power point presentations.

Active and passive smoking lead to the production of a number of oxidants and antioxidants with various adverse health effects compromising the immune system. Tobacco use increases the production of free radicals as well. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of passive smoking on total antioxidant capacity (TAC) of serum and saliva in rats. This experimental study was conducted on 18 rats with an age range of 7-11 weeks weighing 160-200 g; 9 of them were exposed to cigarette smoke 3 times daily for 8 minutes. The 9 controls were not exposed to cigarette smoke. After injection of 0.2 mg/kg midazolam and 0.5 mg/kg pilocarpine, serum and saliva samples were taken from subjects in the exposure and control groups at 0, 15 and 30 days. Serum cotinine was measured using ELISA kit. TAC of saliva and serum was measured using ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assay. TAC values at different time points were statistically analyzed in each group using Repeated Measures ANOVA and compared between the two groups using t-test. At baseline, no significant difference existed between the two groups in terms of serum cotinine concentration but at days 15 and 30, cotinine serum concentration significantly increased in the exposure group. At baseline and 30 days, no significant difference existed between the two groups of passive smoker and non-smoker in terms of serum TAC values but at day 15, serum TAC values were significantly higher in the exposure group. Also, TAC of salivawas significantly higher in the passive smoker group at baseline and at day 15 but at day 30, the difference in this respect between the two groups was not statistically significant. Based on the obtained results, changes in TAC of serum and saliva in rats due to exposure to cigarette smoke were compensated by their immune system activity. However, further investigations are still required in this respect.