<p>The aim of this study was to compare the oral health status between well and malnourished children under five years old attending Mother and Child Health clinic in Queen Elizabeth II Hospital in Maseru, Lesotho.</p>

Medicalization has been discussed at length in the sociology of health and illness literature. Typically, dialogue has centered on the effects of medicalization and the process as a phenomenon in professional fields alone. This work is an attempt to study medicalization using a theoretical model, structuration, that allows for inclusion of the larger social system in understanding health system changes and to include consumers of health services in the process as active agents. The example of oral aesthetics provides an opportunity to identify the agents of change, the process of medicalization in the larger social context, and possible indicators of the phenomenon. An attempt to operationalize the complex concept of medicalization marks a move toward creating testable theoretical models for the variety of behaviors and conditions under study as medicalized. Using content analysis of professional dental journals and lay magazines and a review of system rules and resources, shifts in language use and the emergence of medical frameworks were documented to determine if a medicalization of oral aesthetics had occurred. Results show two distinct periods within the last century when oral aesthetics have been medicalized in the United States. Evidence of turn-taking behavior among the agents is noted as well as the relationship of technology and technological language to the process. A model for future testing is suggested that encompass the identified agents, the language and framework, and the elements of social context.

<p>The aim of this study was to compare the oral health status between well and malnourished children under five years old attending Mother and Child Health clinic in Queen Elizabeth II Hospital in Maseru, Lesotho.</p>

Our study adds to the understanding of dental caries prevention in underserved populations. Dental caries is the most common disease of childhood but can be easily prevented. It is therefore essential that policy makers use evidence to promote policies that will help reduce the burden of caries in high-risk children. We collected socioeconomic and demographic data through written surveys from parents of children at the Lyford Consolidated Independent School District in Willacy County. We got a 60% response to our survey. The survey data was matched with dental examination data from a teledentistry project. Only 19% of children in our matched sample had any sealant but 43% had at least one dental caries. Of those without sealants, almost half (49%) had caries while of those with sealants only 19% had any caries. We also found that while half (48%) of those from low-income households (ie, annual income <$25,000) had caries, only a third (34%) of those in high-income households had any caries. Our data analysis involved econometric modeling to study the impact of various factors including dental sealants on the occurrence of dental caries. We assumed dental sealant application to be a proxy for past preventive dental care. We used multivariate probit regression to test for endogeneity in our model. The estimation results from univariate probit models showed a strong and robust preventive effect of dental sealants on dental caries. We used Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), logit, probit, and logistic regressions to confirm the results and obtained similar findings. We used our fitted model to simulate the effect of providing sealants to all children in our sample and found that there will be a 52% - 68% decrease in the mean predicted probability of caries in different scenarios. Finally, we used cost estimates from published studies and the annual survey of dental fee by the American Dental Association to calculate cost-benefit of providing sealants through school-based programs. We found school-based sealant programs to be cost-beneficial. Our analysis leads to a recommendation to promote school-based sealant programs in underserved populations. / text

published_or_final_version / Dentistry / Master / Master of Dental Surgery

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The majority of currently marketed fluoride varnishes (FV) have not been evaluated for their effectiveness in preventing dental caries. Fundamental research on FVs and how different formulations affect adherence to teeth, fluoride release into saliva and uptake by teeth is virtually non-existent. The objective of this work was to investigate the anti-caries potential, measured as fluoride release into saliva, change in surface microhardness of early enamel caries lesions, and enamel fluoride uptake, of multiple commercially available FVs. We have found that FVs differed in their release characteristics, rehardening capability, and ability to deliver fluoride to demineralized lesions. In addition to our in vitro work, we have conducted a clinical study that aimed to compare saliva and plaque fluid fluoride concentrations following the application of three commercially available FV treatments at predetermined post application time points. We also investigated the change in fluoride concentration in saliva and plaque fluid fluoride from baseline to each post application predetermined time point. We found that FVs varied in their release of fluoride into saliva and plaque fluid but shared common trends in release characteristics. The outcomes of our in vitro and in vivo investigations demonstrate a great variation in anti-caries potential of FVs. This may be attributed to different compositions and physical properties of the tested FVs.

published_or_final_version / Dentistry / Master / Master of Dental Surgery