Dental and oro-facial features of Foetal Anticonvulsant Syndrome.

Aim: Emerging evidence suggests dental/oro-facial anomalies are features of Foetal Anticonvulsant Syndrome (FACS) and have an impact on quality of life. Currently there is limited research on these, and no Aotearoa New Zealand data on FACS overall. This study aimed to collect national data on the dental and oro-facial features of FACS.

Time to complain about pain: Children's self-reported procedural pain in a randomised control trial of Hall and conventional stainless steel crown techniques.

Background: Children's pain in dentistry has undesirable short- and long-term consequences; therefore, less invasive treatments merit consideration.

Aim: To investigate procedural pain scores for two treatments for carious primary molars in New Zealand primary care.

Design: This study was a split-mouth randomised control trial, with secondary outcome analysis.

Oral health of children in Aotearoa New Zealand-time for change.

Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ) has a long tradition of providing publicly funded oral health care for children and young people; however, substantial inequities in child oral health remain. Dental caries is the most prevalent non-communicable childhood disease in NZ, with Māori and Pasifika, those from low socio-economic backgrounds, and those without access to community water fluoridation most affected. Children and whānau with dental caries suffer consequences that seriously affect their day-to-day lives; it is critical not to underestimate the disease or fail to include it when considering children's overall health.

Bonding Universal Dental Adhesive to Developmentally Hypomineralised Enamel.

Purpose: To investigate the effect of pretreatment protocols involving Papacarie Duo gel and Scotchbond Universal (SU) on the microshear bond strength (µSBS) of resin composite (RC) to hypomineralised enamel (HE).

Materials And Methods: Specimens of normal enamel (NE) and HE were derived from extracted hypomineralised first permanent molars (FPMs). Based on the colour of demarcated opacities, HE specimens were classified as creamy/white (CW) or yellow/brown (YB).

Caregivers' Understanding of Informed Consent in a Randomized Control Trial.

There are differences in caregivers' literacy and health literacy levels that may affect their ability to consent to children participating in clinical research trials. This study aimed to explore the effectiveness, and caregivers' understandings, of the process of informed consent that accompanied their child's participation in a dental randomized control trial (RCT). Telephone interviews were conducted with a convenience sample of ten caregivers who each had a child participating in the RCT.

Ultrastructure and properties of primary carious molars treated using the Hall Technique.

Background: The Hall Technique (HT) is a method of restoring decayed primary teeth using stainless steel crowns (SSCs) without tooth preparation, caries removal, or local anaesthetic.

Aim: To investigate the ultrastructural, biomechanical, and chemical characteristics of teeth managed with the Hall Technique in comparison with conventional SSC (controls).

Design: Twelve HT-treated primary molars and four controls were analysed.

The Hall Technique and conventional restorative treatment in New Zealand children's primary oral health care - clinical outcomes at two years.

Background: New Zealand children's oral health care is mostly provided in primary care oral health clinics. Little is known about treatment outcomes.

Hypothesis/aim: To investigate different treatment outcomes of primary molar carious lesions in a sample of children in primary care.

Acceptability of the Hall Technique to parents and children.

Objective: To investigate the acceptability of stainless steel crowns placed by dental therapists on children's primary molars using the Hall Technique.

Design: Mixed methods approach, using qualitative inductive analysis and quantitative analysis.

Setting: Hawke's Bay Community Oral Health Service

Methods: One focus group was conducted and ten thirty-minute phone interviews were undertaken with parents of children who had previously had a stainless steel crown placed using the Hall Technique (over the period 1 December 2011 to 31 May 2012).

Do we need more than one Child Perceptions Questionnaire for children and adolescents?

Background: In dentistry, measures of oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) provide essential information for assessing treatment needs, making clinical decisions and evaluating interventions, services and programmes. The two most common measures used to examine child OHRQoL today are the Child Perceptions Questionnaire at two ages, 8-10 and 11-14 (CPQ₈₋₁₀, CPQ₁₁₋₁₄). The reliability and validity of these two versions have been demonstrated together with that (more recently) of the short-form 16-item impact version of the CPQ₈₋₁₀.

The Down syndrome patient in dental practice, Part II: clinical considerations.

Down syndrome (DS), or Trisomy 21, is a genetic disorder which results in intellectual impairment, typical craniofacial features and a wide spectrum of phenotypic abnormalities (reviewed by Kieser et al, 2003). Despite a large volume of research into this condition, its prevalence remains high (1 in 700 live births - Serra and Neri, 1990; Reeves, 2000). This, together with a notable increase in life expectancy (Pilcher, 1998), improved health care and a greater degree of integration into society in New Zealand has resulted in an increased demand for dental care.

Antifungal drug susceptibilities of commensal Candida isolates.

Two hundred and forty-two oral commensal yeast isolates were obtained from a convenience sample of 134 healthy 7- and 8-year-old children (65 males and 69 females). The isolates were initially tested for their susceptibilities to the antifungal azole drug fluconazole, using an agar diffusion method (Etest), which was suitable for screening large numbers of yeast isolates, and confirmed as equivalent to the broth microdilution reference method. Eighteen isolates from 7 children were found to have low fluconazole susceptibility according to guidelines published by the United States National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards (NCCLS).