Can caries in the primary dentition be used to predict caries in the permanent dentition? An analysis of longitudinal individual data from 3–19 years of age in Sweden

AIM: To investigate if active caries disease in the primary dentition can be used as a long-term predictor for active caries disease in the permanent dentition.STUDY DESIGN: Population-based longitudinal register study.METHODS: This study included all those born in 1987 living in Örebro county who came to the clinic for an examination at all three measuring points in 1990, 1993 and 2006 (n = 1,985, panel). The panel consisted of 77.3% of the baseline group (1990) and represented 60.0% of the three-year-olds in the population in 1990. Caries data were compared at the individual level and were broken down into the components of decayed, filled primary teeth (dft) and decayed surfaces (ds) (at three years and six years) and decayed filled permanent teeth (DFT) and decayed surfaces (DS) (at 19 years). DFT (dft) was used as an indicator of caries experience and DS (ds) as an indicator of active caries diseaseRESULTS: There was a poor correlation between active caries disease at six years of age and active caries disease at 19 years of age. A stronger correlation could be measured between dental caries experience at six years of age (primary dentition) and caries experience at 19 years of age.STATISTICS: Bivariate analyses were conducted by cross-tabulation and Chi-squared statistics. Multivariate analyses were conducted using binary multiple logistic regression with categorical data.CONCLUSIONS: The correlations between active caries disease in the primary dentition and active caries disease at 19 years of age were very low on an individual level. Using early caries disease as a predictive test for later caries disease showed low sensitivity and low specificity over a long time period.</p

Attitudes toward dental appearance in 50- and 60-year-old subjects living in Sweden

Background: Attitudes toward the importance of general appearance have varied much, not only over time but also among groups of individuals of different age and other characteristics. Whether the situation is similar regarding dental appearance does not seem to have been studied. Purpose: The aim was to study the differences in attitudes toward dental appearance between two large samples of 50- and 60-year-old subjects. Materials and Methods: Identical questionnaires were sent to all subjects born in 1942 and 1952 living in two Swedish counties in 2002 (N=17,444, N50=8,881, N60=8,563). The final response rate was 72.2% (N=12,599). In this study, responses to four statements on the importance of dental appearance have been analyzed with respect to gender and age. Results: Many of the responses to the four statements differed with gender and age. To the first statement ("To have beautiful and perfect teeth is very important for how you are treated by other people"), 73% agreed at age 60 compared with 64% at age 50 (p < 0.001). Approximately 90% of the subjects agreed with the second statement ("Minor esthetic imperfections of the teeth have no importance, only they function well"). Logistic regression indicated that several variables were significantly associated with the statements. Besides age and gender, education and self-assessed dental problems were most important. Conclusion: Attitudes toward the importance of dental appearance differed both between genders and age groups in these population samples living in Sweden. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE The varying attitudes toward dental appearance in the population must be acknowledged in treatment decisions. (J Esthet Restor Dent 20:46-56, 2008) © 2008, Blackwell Publishing.</p

The transferability of the minimal invasive surgeon’s skills to open surgery

Background: Robot-assisted laparoscopic surgery has gained popularity, which has contributed to a decrease in the number of open procedures. Hence a growing concern regarding the ability of laparoscopically trained surgeons to perform open surgery (e.g. due to bleeding complications) has been raised. The aim of the study was to investigate the ability of conversion to open surgery following exclusively robotic or laparoscopic training. Methods: Thirty-six medical students were randomized into three groups: Open surgery, laparoscopy, and robot-assisted laparoscopy. All underwent intensive simulation training in the allocated surgical modality. Subsequently, all study subjects performed an open bowel anastomosis in a pig model where anastomoses were tested for resistance to pressure and leak as a surrogate marker of surgical quality. Results: The primary endpoint was the surgical quality of an open surgery model assessed as, leak pressure, which was 80.01 ± 36.16 mmHg in the laparoscopic training group, 106.57 ± 23.03 mmHg in the robotic training group, and 133.65 ± 18.32 mmHg in the open surgery training group (mean, SD). We found that there were no significant differences between the open surgery training group and the robotic training group whereas a significant difference was found when comparing laparoscopic and open surgery training groups in favor of open procedure training (p < 0.001). Conclusion: In a surrogate open surgery model based on bowel anastomosis, we found that skills acquired through practice on robotic simulation platforms were not significantly worse when compared to skills acquired through training in open surgery, whereas skills acquired from laparoscopic training were significantly poorer when compared to open surgery practice. © 2022 Acta Chirurgica Scandinavica Society