Flexural properties of electrospun polymethyl methacrylate microfiber-reinforced BisGMA for dental post prefabrication

Introduction: A dental post is a restoration to preserve the remaining tooth structure thus can be functioned normally. Many researchers suggested a fiber dental post due to its biomechanical properties that are similar to dentin structure. This study aims to analyse the flexural properties of electrospun polymethyl methacrylate microfiber-reinforced BisGMA for dental post prefabrication. Methods: The sample used was following the ADA guideline, as well as for the number of samples. The sample size was 25×2×2mm, which is close to the average dental post size. PMMA microfibers were prepared by dissolving heat cure PMMA powder with 99% acetone, then electrospinning with a rotary collector. Acquired PMMA microfibers were immersed into the resin matrix containing BisGMA, camphorquinone, and 2-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate (DMAEMA) as a monomer, initiator, and co-initiator, respectively, to prepare the dental posts. Results: PMMA microfibers structure and surface fracture of dental posts were confirmed by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). PMMA microfibers show unaligned fiber morphology with an approximate diameter size of 1-5 µm. A universal testing machine was used to measure the dental post's flexural properties (flexural strength and flexural modulus). Dental posts with PMMA fibers showed higher flexural strength (83.5 ± 10.7 MPa) compared to the dental post without PMMA fibers (61.7 ± 3.03 MPa) with a p-value <0.05. On the other hand, PMMA fibers' addition did not significantly increase the dental post's flexural modulus. Conclusion: The PMMA microfibers can intimately adhere to the BisGMA mixture as the resin matrix. Therefore, the PMMA microfiber significantly improves the flexural strength of the BisGMA for dental post prefabrication.

A departing mystery: dementia related knowledge and attitude among dental professionals in Chennai

Background: Improving dentist’s knowledge, perceptions and attitudes of dementia is important in the formation of dementia-friendly communities. The aim of the study was to evaluate dentist’s knowledge and attitudes of dementia. The purpose of this study was to examine dentist’s, interns, postgraduate’s knowledge and attitudes towards dementia and to provide basic data for educating about knowledge of dementia and strengthening positive attitudes towards dementia related patients.Methods: One hundred and ten dentists, dental post graduates, interns aged 22-46 years, from dental schools in Tamil Nadu were invited to complete a series of questions that assessed their dementia knowledge and attitudes.Results: A total of 110 dentists completed the questionnaire. Out of 24 questions on dementia knowledge and attitude, participants were on average able to answer less than half correctly. Responses to the attitude’s questionnaire showed that dentists had both positive and negative attitudes toward dementia.Conclusions: There is scope for dentists to improve their dementia knowledge and attitudes. Until a validated measure of dementia knowledge has been developed specifically for an dentist sample, researchers should avoid summary statistics (i.e.; total score) and instead focus on interrogating where the gaps in knowledge.

A University-based Survey of Career Choices and Perspectives on Higher Education among Dental Students in United Arab Emirates.

Background: Over the past decade, higher education has made significant progress in the Gulf Corporation Council Region (GCC) due to the promotion and investments made by the local governments. Medical and dental higher education has undergone massive transformation across all the universities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) due to the implementation of innovative educational policies. Objectives: The objective of the survey was to determine the career choices and assess the perspectives on higher education among dental students of a medical university in the UAE. Methodology: Structured closed-ended survey questionnaire was provided to 377 respondents at a dental school of a private medical university in UAE. Results: The results of the survey revealed that 51% of the respondents wanted to pursue specialization in dentistry. Orthodontics (33%), endodontics (28%) and oral surgery (16%) were the most preferred branches for specialization. UAE was the most preferred destination for pursuing specialization. Quality of education and proximity to the family were the most common reasons for selecting UAE as the destination for specialization. 36% of the survey respondents wanted more dental post-graduate seats to be available in the UAE. 57% of the survey respondents felt that the cost of post-graduation is comparable to other countries. 64% of the survey respondents felt that Doctor of Philosophy(PhD) program should be offered by medical universities in the UAE. Conclusion: To conclude it can be stated that dental undergraduate students in the UAE prefer to pursue specialization in clinical branches like orthodontics, endodontics and oral surgery. Majority of the respondents prefer to pursue their specialization in the UAE due to the quality of education. Survey respondents felt that there was a need to offer more dental post-graduation and dental PhD programs by UAE universities.

IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON POST-GRADUATE DENTAL TRAINING PROGRAMME

The Coronavirus pandemic has affected all walks of life in an unprecedented manner and in order to curb the spread of the same the government imposed a stringent lockdown. This led to profound effects on the education and training of medical programmes including dentistry. The study was conducted as a cross sectional online survey circulated among dental post graduate students in Karnataka, India. This study assesses the impact of COVID-19 on the dental post graduate training programme considering various factors like impact on teaching, training, dissertation, various problems and difficulties faced by the residents and reasons for stress induced among them. It also addresses suggestions which would help in alleviation of the problems. The Government must ensure that the concerned teaching organisations should take the required measures in order to relieve the residents of the various problems faced and provide rational solutions for the same.

Flexural Strength Evaluation of Dental Post Prototype Contain ZAS-PMMA Composite Fiber with Electrospinning Methods

Composite fiber were already developed and looked promising in dentistry. PMMA, optically clear polymer, was combined with high mechanically properties ZrO2-Al2O3-SiO2 (ZAS) ceramic powder to improve the flexural strength value of dental post prototype. ZAS powder, with ratio 60:20:20, were first prepared via sol-gel technique. Afterwards, PMMA was dissolved in acetone then incorporate with ZAS powder 1% wt to gain ZAS-PMMA composite fiber via electrospinning method. Dental post prototype were fabricated into two groups, one group contain ZAS-PMMA composite fibers and one group contain neat BisGMA, as control, with amount of each groups samples was 10. As-prepared samples were tested by Universal Testing Machine (UTM) to evaluate the flexural strength values. Based on unpaired T-test analysis (p value < 0.05), the composite fiber post is significantly higher (48.17 %) than the neat BisGMA post. ZAS-PMMA composite fiber post was potential to be used as dental endodontic post in anterior.