Prevalence of Root Stumps of Permanent Teeth in Pediatric Patients

Tooth loss is the terminal event in the life of a tooth and is a frequent episode in individuals who are uncared and have neglected oral hygiene. Tooth loss has various ill effects on an individual such as impairment of masticatory function, bad phonetics, unpleasant aesthetics, TMJ disorders, psychological issues, social withdrawal which results from decrease in confidence level. It is evident that caries and periodontitis are the most common causes for tooth loss with caries being the commonest between them. Neglected oral health may result in caries progression, which will lead to formation of root stumps. The aim of the study is to find the prevalence and incidence of root stumps of permanent teeth in pediatric patients. The study was performed under a university setting where the data of patients with root stumps of permanent teeth was collected by reviewing patients records and analysing the data of 86000 patients. The collected data was compiled, reviewed, tabulated and entered in SPSS software for statistical analysis. The study shows that only 2% were extractions of root stumps of permanent teeth. Extraction of root stumps of permanent teeth were more prevalent in patients of 9 and 11 years of age (34%) with a female predilection with most common teeth being the maxillary second premolar (22.2%). This study indicates the negligence of parents regarding the oral health of the children and provides insight on parents’ care towards the oral health of the child. Preventive measures such as topical fluoride application and usage of denial fissure sealants should be encouraged to prevent caries. Thus, the preservation of the natural dentition should be the ultimate goal of the dental professionals.

Continuous Blood Glucose Monitoring to Determine the Glycemic Variability in Patients Having SARS CoV-2 Infection with ARDS and Its Bearing on the Severity of the Disease

Aims and Objectives: A study to determine the effect of glycemic variability measured by continuous blood glucose monitoring as assessed by standard deviation of each SARS CoV -2 patient's mean glucose level and to correlate with the severity of the disease. Study Design: Cross-sectional observational study of 13 patients with SARS CoV-2 infection with Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) with and without diabetes. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Medicine, Dhiraj Hospital, Smt. Bhikhiben Kanjibhai Shah Medical College and Research Institute; between June 2020 to July 2020. Results: 13 patients of SARS CoV-2 with ARDS were enrolled in the study. The median age of the enrolled patients was 55±12 years. Out of the 13 patients, 5 patients belonged to mild and severe category of ARDS each respectively and 3 patients belonged to the moderate category of ARDS. There was a gradual rise in inflammatory markers such as serum LDH, Ferritin, CRP from mild to severe ARDS and D-dimer level was more than double in severe category as compared to the mild ARDS. Normal glycemic variability in adults is 0-3 SD, and we found that there was a significant co-relation of glycemic variability with severity of the disease evidenced by the mean standard deviation of severe ARDS patients as 27.44 SD; whereas 19.26 SD and 9.7 SD for moderate and mild ARDS patients respectively. Hypoglycemia was documented in 10 patients. The maximum stay in the hospital was that of the patients with high glycemic variability that is 22 ± 2 days Conclusion: This preliminary study relates glycemic variability with severity of ARDS in patients of severe SARS CoV-2. Frequent episode of hypoglycemia is not uncommon and should be monitored.

EFFECTIVENESS OF STRUCTURED TEACHING PROGRAMME ON KNOWLEDGE REGARDING MANAGEMENT OF MINOR AILMENTS AMONG SCHOOL CHILDREN

Background: Suffering from minor ailments is the most frequent episode in childhood experiences. A productive and energetic population cannot grow from unhealthy children who are chronically affected by repeated minor ailments. Method: An evaluative study using one group pretest posttest design was conducted among 30 school children of 9th class in a selected school of Udupi taluk, Karnataka to assess the knowledge of school children regarding the management of minor ailments and to evaluate the effectiveness of structured teaching programme on knowledge regarding management of minor ailments. Results: Majority of children 17 (56 .7 %) had average knowledge in the pretest and only 4(13.3%) children had poor knowledge. There was a significant difference between the mean pretest and posttest knowledge scores on management of minor ailments among school children which indicated that the structured teaching programme on management of minor ailments was found to be effective(t= 9.702, P<0.05). Conclusion: The study concluded that the teaching programme was effective in bringing the desired changes in the knowledge of the school children.