Objectives: Evaluate oral health care access and utilisation, while identifying the specific oral health needs of the Native American Elders within the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (WTGH) on Martha's Vineyard Island.
Background: Elders, particularly the WTGH face notable issues in obtaining oral health care. This study addressed the oral health gaps within the WTGH Elders through a comprehensive community needs assessment.
Background: Dental caries remains one of the most prevalent diseases worldwide, affecting 29.4% of the global population. Despite numerous efforts to diagnose, predict, and prevent dental caries, the incidence continues to rise.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSARS-CoV-2, a severe respiratory disease primarily targeting the lungs, was the leading cause of death worldwide during the pandemic. Understanding the interplay between the oral microbiome and inflammatory cytokines during acute infection is crucial for elucidating host immune responses. This study aimed to explore the relationship between the oral microbiome and cytokines in COVID-19 patients, particularly those with and without sputum production.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) can adversely affect the immune response through clinical factors such as hypoxia, inflammation, and sleep disturbance. Since SARS-CoV-2 heavily relies on local and systemic host immune responses, this study aims to examine the links between the severity of OSA risk, cytokine levels, and the severity of symptoms associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Methods: Saliva and blood samples from 50 COVID-19 patients and 30 non-infected hospital staff members were collected.
Objectives: To create optimal oral and overall community health, dental public health (DPH) specialists must be competent and appropriately skilled to deal with contemporary and emergent public health issues. This study aims to evaluate the current job market demands related to the DPH profession and suggest contemporary skills and qualities that would enable DPH professionals to address emerging issues more effectively in their field.
Methods: A multimethod qualitative study was conducted involving two distinct groups: employers and potential employees.
Background: Dental caries is considered one of the most prevalent chronic diseases worldwide despite all dental public health efforts. Short sleep duration has been established as a risk factor for several medical conditions. In this study, we aimed to examine the relationship between sleep duration and dental caries.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Poor sleep behavior can trigger an inflammatory response and contribute to the development of inflammatory diseases. Cytokines can act as indicators of inflammation and may precede the onset of inflammatory diseases. This study aimed to determine the association between sleep timing parameters (bedtime, sleep duration, sleep debt, and social jetlag) and the levels of nine serum and salivary inflammatory and metabolic biomarkers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: In this study, we aimed to explore the oral and emotional health challenges experienced by a sample of refugees in Massachusetts across different stages of resettlement using a mixed methods approach.
Methods: We collaborated with two Federally Qualified Health Centers to identify and recruit participants for either surveys (n = 69) or semi-structured interviews (n = 12). Data collection was conducted in 2018.
Introduction: Childhood obesity presents a major risk for metabolic diseases in adulthood. Noninvasive methods are needed for predicting the course of obesity in children and its complications. Using blood for longitudinal analyses of biomarkers to predict disease in children is not a convenient method.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study longitudinally examines the relationship between the frequency of toothbrushing and the development of selected components of metabolic syndrome (MetS), along with the potential role of salivary biomarkers in this relationship. In 2014, 6317 12-year-old children underwent health examinations (T1), of which, 348 children participated in the second stage of data collection in 2019 (T2). The association between the change in the metabolic status during the 5-year follow-up examination (between T1 and T2) and frequency of toothbrushing was assessed using multinomial logistic regression analyses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: To determine whether patients who had undergone tonsillectomy would have higher risks of postoperative periodontitis.
Methods: Data were collected from the Taiwan Longitudinal Health Insurance Dataset from 1999 to 2013, a population-based cohort study consisting of cases of newly-onset sleep apnoea, chronic diseases of tonsils and adenoids, peritonsillar abscess, and periodontal diseases. A total of 1482 tonsillectomy cases and 14,796 non-tonsillectomy controls were selected.
The potential role of the salivary microbiome in human diseases has increasingly been explored. The salivary microbiome has been characterized in several global populations, except the Arabian Gulf region. Hence, in this pilot study, we profiled the salivary microbiome of Kuwaiti adolescents with varied body mass indexes (BMI).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study aimed to investigate the mediating effect of C-reactive protein (CRP) on obesity and hyperglycemia. Fasting blood glucose, high-sensitivity CRP (hs-CRP) levels and waist circumference (WC) were measured on 353 participants. Multilevel regression modeling and mediation analyses were used to investigate the link between abdominal obesity, hs-CRP and hyperglycemia.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCommunity Dent Oral Epidemiol
June 2020
Objective: Inadequate sleep contributes to several adverse systemic health outcomes due to hormonal and metabolic disorders. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of bedtime on the development of dental caries and the relationship with salivary ghrelin and leptin in a prospective cohort study of Kuwaiti children.
Methods: Data were collected from 5456 10-year-old children in 2012 and repeated in 2014.
Background: Poor sleep behavior appears to have adverse effects on health by metabolic disruption and immunity suppression. Sleep disturbance is strongly associated with diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and some cancers. This study aimed to evaluate the association between sleep duration and periodontal disease in a national US population study in a National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe aims of this study were to qualitatively assess dental public health (DPH) residents' perspectives on teaching methods for DPH competencies and to develop and implement a case-based simulation to address those competencies, constructed on the basis of the qualitative assessment. Focus group discussions were conducted with 18 DPH residents enrolled in two university-based DPH programs. Topic areas discussed in the two focus groups were perceived value of DPH competencies, ways to acquire new DPH skills/abilities, and additional skills/abilities needed by DPH residents.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn a longitudinal study of 6,158 Kuwaiti children, we selected 94 for salivary metabolomic analysis who were neither obese (by waist circumference) nor metabolic syndrome (MetS) positive (<3 diagnostic features). Half (43) remained healthy for 2 years. The other half (51) were selected because they became obese and MetS positive 2 years later.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAm J Lifestyle Med
September 2016
. The aim of this study was to identify lifestyle habits that contribute to night sleep reduction in the Kuwaiti population. .
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: This systematic review was performed to evaluate the clinical outcome of coronal pulpotomy treatment to manage carious vital pulp exposure in permanent posterior teeth with closed root apices.
Data/sources: PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guideline was used. A search of articles published between 1960 January and 2015 July was conducted in PubMed, EMBASE, and CENTRAL databases.
Objective: This prospective clinical study evaluated the success of vital pulpotomy treatment for permanent teeth with closed apices using mineral trioxide aggregates (MTA) in a dental public health setting.
Methods: Twenty-seven mature permanent first molars and 2 premolars (in 25 patients) with carious exposure were treated using MTA pulpotomy. Age of patients ranged from 10- to 15-years (mean=13.