Over the past 140 years, dentistry has matured from the original tenets of GV Black by moving from "extension for prevention" to a ] minimal intervention approach. This is part of an evolution that stresses on a medical, rather than a surgical model for caries management. This transition has been facilitated by the introduction and advancement of adhesive dentistry, which encourages preservation of tooth structure. Even with these changes, some of the original writings of Black are still relevant today: '"The day is surely coming ... when we will be engaged in practicing preventive, rather than reparative dentistry."

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Introduction: Due to dearth of resources and from dental public health point of view, one has to identify more effective methods of oral health education. Objective: To assess effect of various methods of oral health education on oral health knowledge and oral health status of high school children in Gadag town. Methodology: 880 study subjects aged 13-15 yrs from 6 schools were randomly allocated to 6 groups, which were: health talk, health talk with charts and models, computer method, pamphlets, exhibition and control groups respectively. Their oral health knowledge was assessed by questionnaire and oral health status was assessed by plaque index (Silness and Loe) and gingival index (Loe and Silness) before and after oral health education. Results: Baseline mean oral health knowledge scores in groups I to VI were 7.54, 7.46, 7.58, 7.57,7.47 & 7.44 respectively; baseline mean plaque index scores in groups I to VI were 1.08, 1.02, 1.10, 1.08, 1.09 & 1.07 respectively and baseline mean gingival index scores in groups I to VI were 0.94, 0.87, 0.90, 0.95, 0.96 & 0.89 respectively. Mean oral health knowledge scores increased in groups I to VI by 2.87, 3.37, 4.34, 1.83, 1.88 and 0.06 respectively. Mean change in plaque index scores in groups I to VI were 0.10, -0.13, -0.20, 0.04, 0.14 & 0.22 respectively; and mean change in gingival index scores in groups I to VI 0.12, -0.11, -0.16, 0.05, 0.11 & 0.27 respectively. Conclusions: Computer method was most effective method in improving oral health knowledge; only computer method and charts-models improved their plaque and gingival status.

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Aim and Objectives: The aim of the study is to assess and compare the knowledge, attitude and practice of oral health among final year nursing students and government nursing staff of Bangalore city. Materials and Methods: The study population consisted of 250 final year nursing students and 250 staff nurses of Bangalore city.l3 Final year nursing students were randomly selected (from the attendance register) from each 20 randomly selected nursing institutions out of 79 nursing institution. 50 Nursing staffs were randomly selected from 5 government hospitals in Bangalore city. Pretested questionnaires are prepared on knowledge, attitude and practice of oral health among 250 final year students and 250 nursing staffs and were tested by yes/no response statements. Score 1 was given for each correct answer. Mean score in knowledge and attitude between staff and student were compared using student 't' test. Pearson's Correlation coefficient was calculated to compare the association between knowledge and attitude separately for the staff and students. Results: Mean knowledge score of staff nurse was 12.62 +1- 1.95, compared to student's score where it was 16.33 +/- 2.16. Mean attitude score of staff nurse was 3.54 +1- 1.03, compared to students score 3.95 +/- 1.07.The mean score for practice was3.38 +I- 1.41 among staff nurse and 6.82 +I- 1.49 among the students. The difference of mean scores for knowledge, attitude and practice were statistically significant between students and staff nurse at p<0.05. Conclusion: Although dental health care is covered in their syllabus, nurses are not aware of the importance of oral health care within holistic care nor they are given high priority to oral health. Practical training (oral health care education programmes) for staff and students is recommended as a way of improving the caregivers Knowledge, Attitude and oral health care performance to the hospitalized patients.

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Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate why students at J.S.S.Dental College had chosen Dentistry as their career, to consider the background factors that had influenced their decision and to study their different career goals. Material and Methods: Career aspiration of Dental students was assessed with the help of Questionnaire which was distributed among students divided into 6 groups (1st year, 2nd year, 3rd year, 4th year (undergraduates), interns and postgraduates). Answers were then analyzed to find differences between the groups. Results: Response rate was 78% (n=431). Main reason for students to enter this profession was their own interest (53%, n ""290) in the field followed by unavailability of other desired courses 34%, (n=186). 60% of the undergraduates including the interns aspired to study further i.e. do their post graduation after completion for better salaries and good job opportunities while the second common choices were administrative service and private practice. 55% (30/56) of the postgraduates wanted to go for teaching and research while the remaining wished to manage both private practice and teaching. Majority of the students wanted to take up oral surgery as their speciality followed by orthodontia and cosmetic Dentistry. 52% (n=285) of students wanted to go abroad for further studies commonly to U.S.A followed by Australia and New Zealand and wished for some career counseling in this regard. When asked whether they would advice their friends to take up Dentistry, 62% (n "' 340) said yes, mainly because of good scope due to new emerging technologies while 38% (n = 208) said no due to factors like increased stress, low salaries and saturation in this field.

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Background: The concept of health has prevailed for centuries and the dietary habits are changing with modernization. "Healthy eating" is perceived to be important and fruit juices are marketed and promoted aggressively as a ''Health drink''. Objecdves: (i) To estimate the endogenous pH and titratable acidity of four fruit juices. [Freshly prepared- Apple and Sweet lime, Ready to drink- Frooti and Pulpy orange] (ii) To assess the effect of these test drinks on plaque pH in two groups. [DMFf=O and DMFf>3]. (iii) To compare between the juices for two groups. Methodology: 24 volunteers aged 20-30 years from College of Dental Sciences, Davangere were included and divided into 2 groups based on caries experience. The groups were randomly allocated for fruit juices and a four period cross-over study was designed. Endogenous pH of the fruit juices and plaque samples collected at baseline and after consumption of fruit juice at 1,5,10,15 and 30 minutes was assessed by digital pH meter. Statistical analysis was done by using student t-test, ANOVA and Tukey's post hoc. Result: Four fruit juices were acidic and reduced plaque pH. Maximum pH drop was for ready to drink compared to fresh fruit juices in both the groups but in group B it dropped below critical pH. Conclusion: Ready to drink has more cariogenic potential compared to fresh fruit juices especially for caries active group.

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Background: Evaluation of existing oral health services shows that it is predominantly urban oriented, most curative in nature and it is accessible mainly to small part of population i.e., privileged few. Dental diseases are more prevalent in rural populations than urban populations and urban populations have more dental visits than rural populations. Availability and utilization of dental health services by the public will vary according to the availability, accessibility and acceptability of the services. In addition attributes of the population such as its educational system and economic status will affect utilization. Objectives: (i) To assess the oral health status and treatment needs and distribution of dental manpower in Mysore district (ii) To suggest appropriate measures to improve the dental health care delivery system Methods: A total of 600 subjects in urban area i.e., Mysore city and 600 subjects in rural areas i.e, T.Narsipur and Nanjangud were examined by stratified random sample method. Data were recorded using modified WHO proforma (1997). Data was analyzed using SPSS for windows (Evaluation version) Results: The Dental caries experience was more in urban population (55.5%) than rural population (44.5%). The prevalence of periodontal disease was more rural population (85.8%) than the urban population (54.2%), which could be attributed more of adverse habits and less oral hygiene practices among rural population. Assessment of treatment needs revealed that higher proportion of rural population required dental treatment, which mainly included extractions, pulp therapy, oral prophylaxis and prosthetic rehabilitation when compared to urban population. The dental visits among urban population was 21.8% and among rural population was 15.7%. Interpretation and Conclusion: Oral health status of rural population is relatively poor compared to that of urban population. Though the dental caries experience is more in urban population (55.5%) than rural population (44.5%), the unmet treatment needs for dental caries is more in rural population. The prevalence of periodontal disease was more rural population (85.8%) than the urban population (54.2%), which could be attributed more of adverse habits and less oral hygiene practices among rural population. The dental visits among urban population was 21.8% and among rural population was 15.7%, which indicates that the dental visits were poor in both urban and rural areas.

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Background: With increasing stress on infection control in recent years, concerns have been raised about bacterial growth in slowly moving waterlines such as those in dental office. A range of opportunistic pathogens have been reported to be associated with dental unit water systems causing nosocomial infections in dental patients. Therefore this study was undertaken. To assess the bacterial contamination of dental unit water system in dental clinics and dental institutions in Mysore. To assess the knowledge and practices of dentists regarding co ntaminatio n of waterlines. Material and Methods: As per random sampling, one Dental Institution and fifty private clinics, in Mysore city were selected for the study. Data on the awareness about the contamination of waterlines was collected with the help of questionnaire distributed among 58 Dentists, among which 50 were private practioners and 8 were Heads of each Department in the Dental Institution. Collection of water samples: One sample each, from all the 8 departments in the Dental Institution and another 8 samples, one each from 8 different private Dental Clinics were collected and analysed quantitatively for bacterial contamination in water analysis laboratory. Results: It was observed that 52% of the dentists use tap water in their waterlines, 47% carried out periodic cleaning using plain water. No chemical agents were used. Water samples from the air water syringes revealed high level of bacterial counts with an average of 31,788 CFU/ml of planktonic or free floating bacteria exceeding the ADA guidelines of 200 CFU/ml. Conclusion: This study therefore shows the need to create more awareness about contamination control measures and techniques among Dentists regarding the Dental unit waterlines. A reasonable protocol for disinfecting and monitoring of the water supply in busy dental practices is required urgently, so water used for dental patient treatment satisfies accepted, safe public health standards. Some guidelines should be charted out.

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Many fears and phobias particularly those which are chronic, cause distress and impairment over long periods of time and may interfere with growth and development, undermine personality functioning and increase vulnerability to other psychopathy. This study was aimed to present an insight on dental fear among the school children in Chennai, by identifying not only highly fearful children but also children at risk for developing this high dental fear. The Children's Fear Survey Schedule Dental Subscale (CFSS-DS) was compared with age. Fear distribution of sample children was studied, using English and Tamil version of CFSS-DS developed by Cuthbert and Melamed. To identify fear among children, cut-off scores were set at 32 and 38; score below 32 as non-fearful children, between 32 and 38 as at risk of developing dental fear and more than or equal to 39 as fearful children. It was found that 42.4% of children were fearful and 22.0% were at the risk of developing dental fear. Dental fear was associated with age and it decreased with increasing age which was found to be statistically significant (p<<0.05). Items of CFSS-DS like 'having somebody put instruments in your mouth', 'choking' and 'injections' generated highest fear among children. Thus the study shows that dental fear does exist among children. By creating awareness through dental health education and exposure at an early age to dental set-up, development of high dental fear may be prevented.

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Doctors are considered to be the visible Gods. Nowadays, medical profession has become commercialized. Doctors adopt deceitful practices so as to attract the innocent patients and thereby collect money in huge amounts. The State has undertaken lot of responsibilities to prevent these practices. For that purpose, they were brought under The Consumer Protection Act, 1986. Now they are subject to the jurisdiction of Consumer Forums in case of their negligent acts. So learned members of this noble profession themselves suggest some effective measures at their own level to check malpractices so that professional dignity is not put at stake. Stagnation in continuing education should be broken and we should wake up to the realities.

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Dentists encounter numerous sources of stress as soon as they start dental practice. Dentistry can be a stressful profession. Dentists encounter numerous sources of stress either from busy appointment schedule or personal problems. These effects of stress on dentists may lead to ''professional burnout syndrome". Professional burnout is normally attributed to an accumulation of significant occupational stress. In few dentists, these issues may significantly affect their physical health, mental health or both. This can led to clinical disorders such as burnout, anxiety and depression. These disorders may have certain negative effects on dentist's professional relationships, personal relationships, health and well-being. These hazards can be prevented and cured in most cases by doing yoga therapy. The sensible practice of yoga can massage the lymph system. Yoga in general, activates the flow of lymph throughout the body, promoting and speeding up the filtering process. Yoga relaxes the body and mind, by relaxing it heals.

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Numerous studies report shows that fluoride available in water reduces dental caries, but little evidence is available regarding the effect of fluoride on the periodontal tissues. The purpose of this study was to determine the periodontal status, in varying concentrations of fluoride using Plaque Index (Silness and Loe), Gingival Index (Loe& Silness), and Community Periodontal Index. A total of 1201 subjects of age 12-45 years were studied. The study results showed that the mean plaque score at OPPM was 1.35, which reduced gradually at 1PPM and 1.8PPM, however there was a slight increase to 1.07 and 1.09 at 2.7PPM and 4.4PPM. Similar benefits were obtained for gingivitis, calculus, shallow pocket and deep pocket. The distribution of subjects with loss of attachment reduced from 15.82% at OPPM to 5.39% at 4.4PPM.

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Objective: The present study was done to know the reasons of tobacco usage and to know the type and form of tobacco used among the urban and periurban population of Udaipur city. Materials and Method: Udaipur is divided into four geographic regions. A simple random sampling method was used to select the samples. The study population consisted of 500 random samples (342 males and 158 females). Structured questionnaire was developed which elicited demographic details, information about tobacco chewing practices, etc. Results: The study reveals that both males (88.4%) and females (31.6%) use tobacco in different forms. Tobacco use was found to be most common in the age group of 26-30 years and 31-35 years. The major reason of start of tobacco use was found to be due to the curiosity among friends (50.4%), while 20% &17.6% use due to the belief that tobacco use reduces dental pain and produces stress relief. Thus it can be concluded from the present study that more emphasis should be on improving the awareness so as to prevent the tobacco habits. Objective of Study: 1. To know the reasons of tobacco usage among the population of Udaipur. 2. To know the type and form of tobacco used among the population of Udaipur.

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