Orthodontic Treatment Completion and Discontinuation in a Rural Sample from North Central Appalachia in the USA.

Background: Orthodontics has inherent demands, requiring regular appointments and active patient engagement, but relatively little is established in regard to rates of completion of treatment and possible factors affecting successful completion. These factors may be particularly important for cultural minority groups, such as those in rural Appalachia, given the environmental, social, and economic complexities affecting access to and utilization of treatment.

Design And Methods: A naturalistic study design was employed, using retrospective data from a rural outpatient general dental office in July 2012.

Ecosystem services and urban heat riskscape moderation: water, green spaces, and social inequality in Phoenix, USA.

Urban ecosystems are subjected to high temperatures--extreme heat events, chronically hot weather, or both-through interactions between local and global climate processes. Urban vegetation may provide a cooling ecosystem service, although many knowledge gaps exist in the biophysical and social dynamics of using this service to reduce climate extremes. To better understand patterns of urban vegetated cooling, the potential water requirements to supply these services, and differential access to these services between residential neighborhoods, we evaluated three decades (1970-2000) of land surface characteristics and residential segregation by income in the Phoenix, Arizona, USA metropolitan region.

Tooth whitening effects on bracket bond strength in vivo.

Objective: To test the hypothesis that there is no difference between the bracket survival rate of brackets bonded to bleached and unbleached teeth.

Materials And Methods: Thirty-eight patients who required comprehensive orthodontic treatment were included in the study. A split mouth technique was used with one arch exposed to in-office whitening gel containing 38% hydrogen peroxide for 30 minutes, while the unbleached arch served as the control.

Oral health disparities in Appalachia: orthodontic treatment need and demand.

Background: Significant oral health disparities affect people in West Virginia and elsewhere in Appalachia. Although oral diseases such as caries are a major problem, little is known about the occlusal status of this under-served group.

Methods: Fifty-eight adolescents (ages 12-17 years) and 78 of their parents underwent an orthodontic examination as part of a larger study on oral health in two rural West Virginia counties.

Accuracy of space analysis with emodels and plaster models.

Introduction: The purposes of this study were to determine the accuracy and speed of measuring the overall arch length and the Bolton ratio, and the time to perform a Bolton analysis for each patient by using software (emodel, version 6.0, GeoDigm Corp, Chanhassen, Minn) compared with hand-held plaster models.

Methods: Models from 30 patients selected from the files of the Department of Orthodontics at West Virginia University were included in this study.

Treatment effects of the edgewise Herbst appliance: a cephalometric and tomographic investigation.

Introduction: The crown Herbst appliance was introduced in the late 1980s because of shortcomings of the banded Herbst. In edgewise Herbst treatment, a fixed appliance is used with the crown Herbst to maximize the skeletal effects of treatment. Treatment response to the edgewise Herbst appliance has not been reported in the literature.

Interactive effects of temperature and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi on growth, P uptake and root respiration of Capsicum annuum L.

Capsicum annuum (pepper) plants were inoculated with the arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi Glomus intraradices Smith and Schenck, an undescribed Glomus sp. (AZ 112) or a mixture of these isolates. Control plants were non-mycorrhizal.