Risk of Postpartum Dental Caries: Survival Analysis of Black/African American and White Women in Appalachia.

Background: Pregnancy is associated with increased risk of caries, but the extent this increase extends into the postpartum period is poorly understood.

Study Objective: Describe the epidemiology of dental decay in the postpartum period among Black/African American and White American women and explore associations with potentially modifiable risk factors.

Materials And Methods: We analyzed data from 1,131 Black/African American and White women participating in Center for Oral Health Research in Appalachia cohorts.

Smoking and salivary microbiota: a cross-sectional analysis of an Italian alpine population.

The oral microbiota plays an important role in the exogenous nitrate reduction pathway and is associated with heart and periodontal disease and cigarette smoking. We describe smoking-related changes in oral microbiota composition and resulting potential metabolic pathway changes that may explain smoking-related changes in disease risk. We analyzed health information and salivary microbiota composition among 1601 Cooperative Health Research in South Tyrol participants collected 2017-2018.

Evaluating the ecological hypothesis: early life salivary microbiome assembly predicts dental caries in a longitudinal case-control study.

Background: Early childhood caries (ECC)-dental caries (cavities) occurring in primary teeth up to age 6 years-is a prevalent childhood oral disease with a microbial etiology. Streptococcus mutans was previously considered a primary cause, but recent research promotes the ecologic hypothesis, in which a dysbiosis in the oral microbial community leads to caries. In this incident, density sampled case-control study of 189 children followed from 2 months to 5 years, we use the salivary bacteriome to (1) prospectively test the ecological hypothesis of ECC in salivary bacteriome communities and (2) identify co-occurring salivary bacterial communities predicting future ECC.

Maternal factors and risk of early childhood caries: A prospective cohort study.

Objective: To evaluate the associations between time-varying factors (mother's oral health, oral hygiene, smoking habits, diet, food insecurity and stress) socioeconomic factors (mother's employment, marital status, household income, insurance status, household size) and medical history on children's risk of developing a carious lesion in the first 3 years of life.

Methods: Longitudinal data from the Center for Oral Health Research in Appalachia Cohort Two (COHRA2) were analysed. Pregnant women ≥18 years in the USA were recruited during pregnancy; all consenting women delivering at term and their babies had regular dental assessments and complete in-person surveys and telephone interviews regarding sociodemographic factors, medical and dental history, and oral health behaviours.

Low levels of salivary metals, oral microbiome composition and dental decay.

Salivary microbiome composition can change following exposure to environmental toxicants, e.g., heavy metals.

Co-occurrence of yeast, streptococci, dental decay, and gingivitis in the post-partum period: results of a longitudinal study.

: The interactions between yeast and streptococci species that lead to dental decay and gingivitis are poorly understood. Our study describes these associations among a cohort of 101 post-partum women enrolled in the Center for Oral Health Research in Appalachia, 2012-2013. : All eligible women without dental caries were included (n = 21) and the remainder were randomly sampled to represent the total number of decayed, missing, and filled teeth (DMFT) at enrollment.

Characteristics of the vaginal microbiome in women with and without clinically confirmed vulvodynia.

Background: Vulvodynia (idiopathic vulvar pain) affects up to 8% of women by age 40 years, has a poorly understood etiology, and has variable treatment efficacy. Several risk factors are associated with vulvodynia from a history of yeast infections to depression and allergies. Recent work suggests an altered immune inflammatory mechanism plays a role in vulvodynia pathophysiology.

Epidemiology of Vancomycin-Resistant and Colonization in Nursing Facilities.

Background: Vancomycin-resistant and frequently colonize nursing facility (NF) residents, creating opportunities for vancomycin-resistant (VRE) transmission and dissemination of mobile genetic elements conferring antimicrobial resistance. Most VRE studies do not speciate; our study addresses this lack and compares the epidemiology of and .

Methods: We enrolled 651 newly admitted patients from 6 different NFs and collected swabs from several body sites at enrollment, 14 days, 30 days, and monthly thereafter for up to 6 months.

Paraspinous muscle as a predictor of surgical outcome.

Background: Objective measures for preoperative risk assessment are needed to inform surgical risk stratification. Previous studies using preoperative imaging have shown that the psoas muscle is a significant predictor of postoperative outcomes. Because psoas measurements are not always available, additional trunk muscles should be identified as alternative measures of risk assessment.