Paediatric acute care: Highlights from the Paediatric Acute Care–Advanced Paediatric Life Support Conference,Hobart, 2018

The Paediatric Acute Care Conference (PACC) is an annual conference organised by APLS Australia to advance paediatric acute care topics for clinicians in pre‐hospital medicine, EDs, acute paediatrics, intensive care and anaesthesia. The PACC 2018 was held in Hobart, Tasmania. We provide a summary of some of the presentations.     

Social connectedness,depression symptoms,and health service utilization: a longitudinal study of Veterans Health Administration patients

Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology - Our study explored whether aspects of veterans’ social connectedness (social support, interpersonal conflict, loneliness, social norms, number...     

Child protection in the time of COVID‐19

As the number of cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) caused by the virus SARS‐CoV‐2 rises exponentially in Australia with consequences for the health system and society at large, we need to remember that during this pandemic that necessary social distancing measures, effective school closures and rising unemployment levels may lead to an increased risk for child abuse and neglect.     

2.1 Evolving methods of assessment

This Working Section is concerned with evolving methods of assessment in dental education. It focuses on newer methods of assessment that might have relevance for broader application. Although it cannot provide answers to all the questions it raises, it is hoped that the contribution it makes is of value in the process of the development of a global network in dental education.     

Human-eye versus computerized color matching

This project compared the difference in color matching between human-eye assessment and computerized colorimetry. Fifty dental personnel were asked to color match Vita Lumin shade tabs to seven different randomly arranged test tabs from the Z100 shade guide. All evaluators were blinded to the shades of the test tabs and were asked to match only body shade of the Vita Lumin tab to the middle third or body of each test tab. The results obtained were subsequently computed into L*a*b* values and compared with results obtained by computerized colorimetry. Results indicate that the difference in color matching between human-eye assessment and computerized colorimetry is shade dependent. Discrepancy was significant for b* coordinates for shades A1 and B2 and L* and b* coordinates for shade C4. For all shades evaluated, color difference between human-eye and computerized color matching is perceivable under clinical settings, as delta E values are greater than 3. There is a need for correction factors in the formal specification of the color-matching software due to the discrepancy between human-eye and computerized colorimetric color matching.     

Actinomyces spp. in supragingival plaque of ethnic Chinese preschool children with and without active dental caries

Very limited molecular epidemiological data are available on the role of Actinomyces spp. in the pathogenesis of caries in the primary dentition. Therefore, we investigated their distribution in supragingival plaque of ethnic Chinese preschool children from Singapore and Hong Kong, either with or without active caries. Plaque samples were taken from intact interproximal enamel areas using dental floss. Bacterial genomic DNA of each sample was extracted and variable regions of 16S ribosomal DNA amplified and labelled with digoxigenin. Oligonucleotide probes specific for Actinomyces bovis, Actinomyces gerencseriae, Actinomyces israelii, Actinomyces meyeri, Actinomyces odontolyticus, catalase-negative Actinomyces naeslundii (genospecies 1 and 2) and catalase-positive Actinomyces naeslundii genospecies 2 (previously Actinomyces viscosus serotype II) were used to detect these species using Southern hybridization with a Minislot and Miniblotter system. A. odontolyticus, A. gerencseriae and A. meyeri were detected with similar frequency in both Singapore and Hong Kong samples or in those with and without active caries. However, the prevalence of A. naeslundii was significantly different in the two locales (p<0.05). A. odontolyticus (88.7%), A. gerencseriae (56.6%) and A. naeslundii (50.9%) were detected in a majority of the samples and the positive hybridization signals of A. gerencseriae in the caries-active group were stronger than from the caries-free group. A. bovis and A. israelii were undetectable in any of the samples. These data imply that A. odontolyticus, A. naeslundii and A. gerencseriae may play an important role in supragingival plaque formation on primary teeth in ethnic Chinese, with others such as A. meyeri contributing.