Lip closing pressure in disabled children: A comparison with normal children

Lip functions play an important role in the oral stages of feeding. Lip closing is an important early motor act in food acquisition and is essential for controlling chewing and swallowing. To date, there have been few papers on the developmental aspects of lip closing strength when taking in food, especially with regard to disabled children. This investigation was designed to produce an ordinal scale of midline lip pressure measurements for a cross-sectional, age-grouped population of normal children. Developmental changes in lip pressure were then compared with those of two populations of disabled children. Pressure measurements were obtained with a strain gauge transducer that was embedded in a spoon during normal feeding. The study population consisted of 104 normal children ranging in age from 5 months to 5 years, 11 children who showed developmental delay (mean 4.5 years), and 10 children with cerebral palsy (mean 5.0 years). Lip pressure was found to increase steadily from 5 months to 3 years and to increase slightly from 3 to 5 years in the normal population. The developmentally delayed group and the cerebral palsied group produced lip pressures and coefficients of variation below those of the normal 1 to 2-year-old group.     

A retrospective clinical evaluation of resin-bonded bridges inserted at the Adelaide Dental Hospital

The clinical performance of resin-bonded Rochette and Maryland bridges inserted by various operators at the Adelaide Dental Hospital is reported. Thirty-four Rochette bridges (30 anterior, 4 posterior) and 228 Maryland bridges (150 anterior, 78 posterior) were assessed. Clinical data were compiled on types of bridge failure, factors influencing bridge retention, and the effects of the prostheses on abutment teeth and supporting tissues. The failure rate for Rochette bridges over 6 years was 75 per cent with a median survival of 2.14 years. Debonding occurred in 70 per cent of bridge failures. The failure rate for Maryland bridges over 5 years was 42 per cent with a median survival of 2.60 years. Pontic fracture (29 per cent) and debonding (20 per cent) were the main failures observed. Porcelain pontics performed significantly better than the processed hybrid resin pontics (P<0.01). The main reasons for debonding included occlusal stresses, non-retentive bridge designs and resin cement failure. A life-table analysis showed no significant difference in the overall cumulative survival rates between Rochette and Maryland bridges. Bridge design and the choice of pontic material and resin cement emerged as significant factors influencing the success rate of the bridges examined.     

Dental status and satisfaction with oral function in a sample of community-dwelling elderly people in Japan

The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of dental status on oral function and satisfaction among a group of independently living elderly persons in an urban area of Japan. The study sample consisted of participants of the Senior Citizens' College from 1995 to 1999. Their dental status and oral satisfaction were measured by a questionnaire. The number of usable questionnaires was 3967, or 80.8% of the total sample. The mean age of the subjects was 66.5 ± 4.3 years, and 52.2% were male. Twenty‐nine percent of them had a natural dentition, and 7.0% were edentulous in both jaws. The prevalence of edentulism in the study sample was significantly lower (p<0.01) than that for the national survey. Overall, 66.4% of the subjects were satisfied with their ability to chew, 56.2% with the appearance of their teeth, 63.1% with their ability to speak clearly, and 76.5% with their ability to taste food. For complete‐denture wearers, the greatest dissatisfaction was with speech (28.5%); however, for the RPD wearers, it was with chewing ability (21.7%). Sixty‐one percent of complete‐denture wearers reported that they were satisfied with their chewing ability, but only 11% of them could eat all three of the evaluated foods without difficulty. The multiple stepwise logistic regression analyses showed that both dental status and self‐assessed general health had a significant association with dissatisfaction with all four oral functions and self‐assessed impairment of chewing ability. There were significant associations between the elderly subjects' dental status and oral function.     

Prediction of arch perimeter changes due to orthodontic treatment

A borderline orthodontic case with mild to moderate space deficiency can be treated without extractions. Expansion can be used to relieve space deficiency. The prediction of arch perimeter change for a given amount of expansion is helpful in planning the treatment of a patient who needs expansion, and it can facilitate nonextraction orthodontic treatment. To date, different amounts of arch perimeter change have been proposed for the same amount of expansion. A computer program is explained in this study, and examples of its uses are given. By entering 4 parameters of a dental arch into the computer program before and after an orthodontic procedure, one can simply calculate the total and the anterior arch perimeters and see the differences between them numerically and graphically. The program can save, print, change, and delete the calculated data for each patient. For clinicians who do not choose to use the computer program, 2 regression formulas are also presented to calculate the anterior and the total dental arch perimeters. The perimeters of 23 pairs of well-aligned dental arches were measured to check the accuracy of the computer program and the formulas. Paired t tests did not show statistically significant differences between the actual, the computer-derived, and the formula-derived perimeters of the dental arches at 95% confidence level.     

Prevalence of dental caries in Taiwan Aboriginal children — Bunun, Paiwan, Rukai, Ami, and Yami Tribes

The DMF index and OHI were examined in five Taiwan Aboriginal Tribes, Bunun, Paiwan, Rukai, Ami and Yami. The subjects were 843 children (475 boys and 368 girls) between 10 and 15 years of age. Taiwan Aboriginals used to have very little dental caries, but they now have a high dental caries prevalence. The mean number of DMF teeth was the least in the Yami (1.67–2.83) followed by the Ami (3.95–4.06) and Bunun (3.52–4.60) Tribes. It was fairly high in the Paiwan (4.44–8.00) and Rukai (5.44–8.11) Tribes. Quite high Oral Hygiene Index (OHI) values were observed in these tribes. These findings suggest that the rapid increase in dental caries in Taiwan Aboriginals seen in the late 1970s reflects the changes in the traditional dietary habits in the 1970s.     

Large database management in clinical dental research

Previously the management and analysis of large databases for longitudinal clinical dental research has been severely restricted by the costs of custom-made software and access to suitable computing equipment. However, the recent availability of powerful personal computers and the use of the Scientific Information Retrieval Database Management System (SIR/DBMS) in association with BMDP Statistical Software has now created an enormously powerful tool for extensive and fast data manipulation requiring relatively few commands and the capability to easily perform detailed statistical analyses.