According to a report by the American Society of Interior Designers (1998), there are three primary components of productivity: employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction and financial performance. Factors that affect productivity are many in a small business, such as an orthodontic office. One such factor is the office design. The objective of this study was to qualitatively assess the impact factor of office design on employee satisfaction, customer (or patient) satisfaction, and financial performance. Two types of interviews and one survey were used in this study. The first interview was with the orthodontist(s) and the second was with staff of the orthodontic practices. The survey was for patients and/or parents of patients. Out of the 270 orthodontists practicing in a 50-mile radius surrounding Philadelphia who were contacted by mail, 35 orthodontists agreed to participate, for a response rate of 13%. Give the limitations of the study, the first twenty orthodontists to respond and coordinate an office visit were identified as the sample for this study. A total of 66 staff members were interviewed throughout the 20 office visits. Each participating office was given 50 letters to pass out to patients informing them of the online survey. Of the 1000 letters left at offices, only 42 patients participated in the online survey, for a response rate of 4.2% Based on the results collected from this study, the following conclusions were drawn: 1. Age of the office does not correlate with efficiency or practice volume. 2. Staff members used more positive adjectives to describe newer offices and staff enthusiasm was greatest at newer offices. 3. A lack of space and issues with colliding bodies and crowding were the most common problems with orthodontic office design, reported by staff and doctors alike. 4. Staff members most often spend 15 minutes for an average adjustment appointment. The office layout or design does not seem to be a factor in appointment length. 5. Female doctors more often had offices that reflected their personal preferences. 6. Most doctors believe that their office layout contributes most to efficiency within their office. 7. Trends in orthodontic office design include: an open treatment bay, a stand-up consult area, and a multipurpose room. Additionally, most offices are embracing technology and placing sterilization within their treatment area. / Oral Biology

Objectives: Historically, maxillary posterior teeth have demonstrated a high incidence of periodontal bone loss and consequently tooth loss. The result is often a loss of vertical height in the posterior maxilla due to sinus pneumatization. This study was carried out to evaluate the incidence and clinical implications of maxillary sinus septa to sinus augmentation procedures. Methods & Materials: A total of 100 patient CBCT scans were examined, of whom 50 were male and 50 females. Patients in this study were either edentulous or partially edentulous and were referred to the Misch International Implant institute (MIII) specifically for possible sinus surgery related to future implant placement. For the purposes of this study, a minimum height of 3mm was used to classify bony lamellae as septa. Results: We found a total of 37 septa in 200 sinuses (18.5%). This corresponds to 29% of the subjects. We can break down the results based on sex, finding the incidence of 30% in females and 28% in males. The majority of the subjects with septa were in the 60+ age bracket. Additionally, all of the septa in our study were oriented in a bucco-palatal direction Conclusions: Detailed information about the sinus anatomy / pathology and specifically the presence of septa (their location and morphology) with the aid of CT scan analysis may provide crucial information to reduce unnecessary complications associated with maxillary sinus surgery i.e. sinus floor elevation. / Oral Biology

Dark-pigmented, gram-negative, anaerobic rods are often recovered in large numbers from the subgingival microbiome of human periodontitis, and are statistically associated with progression of chronic periodontitis. Due to their frequent expression of beta-lactamase enzymes, which hydrolyze and degrade beta-lactam class antibiotics, these species may compromise systemic periodontal antimicrobial chemotherapy involving amoxicillin, which may lead to clinical therapeutic failures in chronic periodontitis therapy. Recent studies using phenotypic methods have identified the in vitro growth of Prevotella intermedia/nigrescens in the presence of therapeutic threshold concentrations of amoxicillin, which is indicative of species antibiotic resistance. Because of uncertainties with their taxonomic classification, only limited information is available on the distribution of amoxicillin-resistant species within the group of dark-pigmented, gram-negative, anaerobic rods that may colonize and inhabit human subgingival sites. Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry and its associated analytic software, was recently approved for clinical microbiology diagnostic use in the United States by the United States Food and Drug Administration. This methodology is capable of definitively identifying 4,613 different oral and non-oral microbial species based on mass spectra of their bacterial protein profiles, including many dark-pigmented, gram-negative, anaerobic rods of subgingival origin. However, MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry has yet to be used for species iii identification of dark-pigmented, gram-negative, anaerobic rods recovered from chronic periodontitis lesions, and resistant in vitro to amoxicillin. As a result, the purpose of this study was to use MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry to identify to a species-level the patient distribution of dark-pigmented, gram-negative, anaerobic rods isolated from the subgingival microbiota of chronic periodontitis patients and exhibiting in vitro resistance to therapeutic concentrations of amoxicillin. Methods: 24 chronic periodontitis patients contributed 71 fresh subgingival cultivable isolates (one to 11 isolates per patient) which were presumptively identified by their brown to black colony pigmentation on anaerobically-incubated enriched Brucella blood agar primary isolation plates containing amoxicillin at 8 μg/ml as amoxicillinresistant, dark-pigmented, gram-negative, anaerobic rods. Each of the amoxicillinresistant, dark-pigmented clinical isolates were subjected to MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry analysis using a bench top mass spectrometer, Bruker FlexControl 3.0 software, and MALDI Biotyper 3.1 software (Bruker Daltonics, Billerica, MA, USA), which contains mass spectra for dark-pigmented, gram-negative, anaerobic rods in its reference library of bacterial protein profiles. A MALDI Biotyper log score of ≥ 1.7 was required for reliable taxonomic classification of the clinical isolates. Results: Only 4 (16.7%) of the chronic periodontitis patients yielded two different dark-pigmented species on amoxicillin-supplemented primary isolation plates, while all other study patients had only one amoxicillin-resistant, dark-pigmented species. Amoxicillin-resistant strains of Prevotella nigrescens were identified in 11 (45.8%) patients, Prevotella intermedia in 8 (33.3%) patients, Prevotella denticola and/or Prevotella species in 3 (12.5%) patients, Porphyromonas gingivalis in 2 (8.3%) patients, and Prevotella melaninogenica in one (4.2%) patient. 50 (70.4%) of the amoxicillinresistant clinical isolates exhibited MALDI Biotyper log scores of ≥ 1.7, the threshold for reliable taxonomic classification, whereas 21 (29.6%) had log scores < 1.7, indicating a less reliable species identification. Conclusions: These findings demonstrate that a range of specific amoxicillinresistant bacterial species comprise cultivable isolates of dark-pigmented, gram-negative, anaerobic rods in the human chronic periodontitis subgingival microbiota. P. nigrescens was the most frequently isolated amoxicillin-resistant, dark-pigmented subgingival bacterial species, followed by P. intermedia. Two study patients surprisingly revealed amoxicillin-resistant strains of P. gingivalis. The occurrence of amoxicillin-resistant, dark-pigmented rods in chronic periodontitis lesions may complicate selection, and markedly reduce the potential effectiveness, of systemic periodontal antimicrobial therapies involving beta-lactam antibiotics. / Oral Biology

No description available.

published_or_final_version / Endodontics / Master / Master of Dental Surgery

Thesis (M. Sc.)--Lakehead University, 1995. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M. Sc.)--Lakehead University, 1995. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.