EVIDENCE-PRACTICE GAP IN TREATMENT DECISIONS ABOUT DEFECTIVE COMPOSITE AND AMALGAM RESTORATIONS AMONG BRAZILIAN DENTISTS.

Better understanding of dentists' decision-making about defective restorations is needed to close the evidence-practice gap (EPG). this study aimed to quantify the EPG about defective restorations and identify dentist factors associated with this EPG. 216 dentists from São Paulo State, Brazil, completed a questionnaire about three clinical case scenarios involving defective composite restorations with cementum-dentin margins (case 1) and enamel margins (case 2), and an amalgam (case 3) restoration.

Practitioner/Practice- and Patient-Based Factors Contributing to Dental Practitioner Treatment Recommendations for Patients with Pain-Related TMDs: Findings from the National Dental PBRN.

Aims: To document National Dental Practice-Based Research Network (PBRN) practitioner treatment recommendations for patients with painful temporomandibular disorders (TMDs) and to identify practitioner/practice- and patient-related factors contributing to treatment recommendations made at the initial clinical visit.

Methods: This prospective single-sample cohort study formed groups based on treatment recommendations made by 185 dental practitioners who treated 1,901 patients with painful TMDs. At the baseline visit, which this article describes, practitioners provided patients with their diagnoses and a treatment plan and then completed a comprehensive questionnaire.

Plasmonic sensing using Babinet's principle.

Developing methods to sense local variations in properties of nearby materials, such as their refractive index and thickness, are important in numerous fields including chemistry and biomedical applications. Localized surface plasmons (LSPs) excited in plasmonic nanostructures have been demonstrated to be useful in this context due to the spectral location of their associated resonances being sensitive to changes in the environment near the plasmonic structures. This manuscript explores Babinet's principle by exploiting LSP resonances excited in complementary metal-dielectric cylindrical plasmonic structures (plasmonic particle-dimers and aperture-dimers in our case).

Efficiency of pain inhibition and facilitation of fibromyalgia patients is not different from healthy controls: Relevance of sensitivity-adjusted test stimuli.

Background: Pain is a dynamic phenomenon dependent on the balance of endogenous excitatory and inhibitory systems, which can be characterized by quantitative sensory testing. Many previous studies of pain modulatory capacity of patients with fibromyalgia syndrome (FM) have reported decreased pain inhibition or increased pain facilitation. This is the first study to assess pain modulation, including conditioned pain modulation (CPM) and temporal pain summation, in the same healthy control (HC) and FM participants.

Characteristics and Outcomes of Patients Receiving Physical Therapy for Low Back Pain with a Nociplastic Pain Presentation: A Secondary Analysis.

Introduction: Individuals with low back pain (LBP) may be classified based on mechanistic descriptors, such as a nociplastic pain presentation (NPP). The purpose of this secondary analysis was to examine the frequency and characteristics of patients with a NPP referred to physical therapy with LBP. Additionally, we characterized patients with LBP meeting the criteria for NPP by demographic, clinical, psychological, and pain sensitivity variables.

Pain phenotyping and investigation of outcomes in physical therapy: An exploratory study in patients with low back pain.

Phenotypes have been proposed as a method of characterizing subgroups based on biopsychosocial factors to identify responders to analgesic treatments. This study aimed to, first, confirm phenotypes in patients with low back pain receiving physical therapy based on an a priori set of factors used to derive subgroups in other pain populations. Second, an exploratory analysis examined if phenotypes differentiated pain and disability outcomes at four weeks of physical therapy.

On-fiber high-resolution photonic nanojets via high refractive index dielectrics.

In this manuscript, we present high spatial resolution focusing of electromagnetic waves at telecommunication wavelengths (λ = 1.55 µm) by using high-refractive index mesoscale dielectrics placed at the end of an optical fiber. Our approach exploits photonic nanojets (PNJs) to achieve high-intensity, spatially narrow focal spots.

Expectations affect pain sensitivity changes during massage.

Background: Pain-inducing massage produces comparable changes in pain sensitivity as a cold pressor task, suggesting shared neurophysiological mechanisms of conditioned pain modulation. Manual therapy and conditioned pain modulation are influenced by positive and negative expectations. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the effects of positive and negative expectations on pain-free and pain-inducing massage.

Avoidance-Endurance Model in Older Black Men with Low Back Pain: Exploring Relationships.

Objective: The objective of the study was to investigate functional performance and pain intensity outcomes for associations with negative cognitive orientations, avoidance behaviors, and fear of pain in older Black men with low back pain (LBP).

Methods: Sixty Black men aged 60 and older (70 years[Formula: see text]) with LBP completed the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB), the 400-m walk test, and subjective measures of avoidance behaviors, back performance, pain intensity, and pain catastrophizing (i.e.

Plasmonic meniscus lenses.

Controlling and manipulating the propagation of surface plasmons has become a field of intense research given their potential in a wide range of applications, such as plasmonic circuits, optical trapping, sensors, and lensing. In this communication, we exploit classical optics techniques to design and evaluate the performance of plasmonic lenses with meniscus-like geometries. To do this, we use an adapted lens maker equation that incorporates the effective medium concepts of surface plasmons polaritons travelling in dielectric-metal and dielectric-dielectric-metal configurations.

Management of painful temporomandibular disorders: Methods and overview of The National Dental Practice-Based Research Network prospective cohort study.

Background: Patients often seek consultation with dentists for temporomandibular disorders (TMDs). The objectives of this article were to describe the methods of a large prospective cohort study of painful TMD management, practitioners' and patients' characteristics, and practitioners' initial treatment recommendations conducted by The National Dental Practice-Based Research Network (the "network").

Methods: Participating dentists recruited into this study treated patients seeking treatment for painful TMDs.

Resting-state functional connectivity patterns are associated with worst pain duration in community-dwelling older adults.

Introduction: An individual's chronic pain history is associated with brain morphometric alterations; but little is known about the association between pain history and brain function.

Objectives: This cross-sectional study aimed at determining how worst musculoskeletal pain intensity (WPINT) moderated the association between worst musculoskeletal pain duration (WPDUR) and brain resting-state magnetic resonance imaging functional connectivity (RSFC) in community-dwelling older adults (60-94 years, 75% females, 97% right-handed).

Methods: Resting-state magnetic resonance imaging functional connectivity between region of interests was linearly regressed on WPDUR and WPINT.

Diffraction limited photonic hook via scattering and diffraction of dual-dielectric structures.

Photonic hooks have demonstrated to be great candidates for multiple applications ranging from sensing up to optical trapping. In this work, we propose a mechanism to produce such bent structured light beams by exploiting the diffraction and scattering generated by a pair of dielectric rectangles immersed in free space. It is shown how the photonic hooks are generated away from the output surface of the dielectrics by correctly engineering each individual dielectric structure to generate minimum diffraction and maximum scattering along the propagation axis.

Brain gamma-aminobutyric acid, but not glutamine and glutamate levels are lower in older adults with chronic musculoskeletal pain: considerations by sex and brain location.

Introduction And Objectives: GABAergic and glutamatergic neurotransmitter systems are central to the pathophysiology of chronic pain and are equally affected by aging processes. We measured levels of frontal gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and the combined resonance of glutamate and glutamine (Glx) in vivo using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (H-MRS) to elucidate age-specific and pain-specific associations with clinical and experimental pain in older adults.

Methods: Younger (18-24, n = 24) and older (60-94, n = 41) individuals part of a larger study (Neuromodulatory Examination of Pain and Mobility Across the Lifespan [NEPAL]) underwent questionnaires, quantitative sensory testing, and H-MRS Mescher-Garwood point-resolved spectroscopy to measure GABA and Glx levels in prefrontal and sensorimotor brain regions.

A psychophysical study comparing massage to conditioned pain modulation: A single blind randomized controlled trial in healthy participants.

Introduction: Pain-inducing massage results in greater pain inhibition than pain free massage, suggesting a mechanism dependent on conditioned pain modulation (CPM). The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that pain inducing massage produces similar magnitude of reduction in pain sensitivity as a cold pressor task and that baseline conditioned pain modulation efficiency predicts pain inducing massage related hypoalgesia.

Methods: Sixty healthy participants were randomly assigned to receive either pain inducing massage to the neck, cold pressor task to the hand, or pain free massage to the neck.

Static and Dynamic Pain Sensitivity in Adults With Persistent Low Back Pain: Comparison to Healthy Controls and Associations With Movement-evoked Pain Versus Traditional Clinical Pain Measures.

Objectives: Despite its impact, individual factors associated with persistent low back pain (LBP) remain poorly understood. This study investigated static and dynamic pain sensitivity in adults with persistent LBP versus pain-free controls; and investigated associations between pain sensitivity and 3 clinical pain measures: recalled, resting, and movement-evoked pain (MEP).

Materials And Methods: A lifespan sample of 60 adults with persistent LBP and 30 age-matched/sex-matched controls completed 4 laboratory sessions.

Pain and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) in Aging.

Objective: The present study aimed to determine whether specific cognitive domains part of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) are significantly lower in community-dwelling older adults with chronic pain compared with older adults without pain and whether these domains would be associated with self-reported pain, disability, and somatosensory function.

Design: Secondary data analysis, cross-sectional.

Setting: University of Florida.

Cortical Thickness Mediates the Association Between Self-Reported Pain and Sleep Quality in Community-Dwelling Older Adults.

Introduction: Musculoskeletal pain is prevalent in older adults representing the leading cause of disability in this population. Similarly, nearly half of older adults complain of difficulty sleeping. We aimed to explore the relationship between sleep quality with self-reported musculoskeletal pain, somatosensory and pain thresholds in community-dwelling older adults and further explore brain regions that may contribute to this association.

METHODS FOR CARIES PREVENTION IN ADULTS AMONG DENTISTS FROM A BRAZILIAN COMMUNITY: Adult' caries prevention among Brazilian dentists.

Unlabelled: Little is known about dental practice patterns of caries prevention in adults among Brazilian dentists.

Objective: To quantify procedures used for caries prevention for adult patients among dentists from a Brazilian community.

Methods: Dentists (n=197) who reported that at least 10% of their patients are more than 18 years old participated in the first Brazilian study that used a translated version of the "Assessment of Caries Diagnosis and Caries Treatment" from the U.

Age does not affect sex effect of conditioned pain modulation of pressure and thermal pain across 2 conditioning stimuli.

Introduction: Conditioned pain modulation (CPM) is a laboratory test resulting in pain inhibition through activation of descending inhibitory mechanisms. Older adults consistently demonstrate reduced CPM compared with younger samples; however, studies of sex differences in younger cohorts have shown mixed results.

Objectives: This study tested for sex differences in CPM within samples of younger and older adults.

Real-time image restoration for space-object imaging.

Military applications such as optical space surveillance and civilian applications such as astronomical imaging often require adaptive optics to compensate images of distant objects that are dynamically blurred by atmospheric turbulence. Many factors prevent adaptive optics (AO) from restoring a fully diffraction-limited image quality. Accordingly, restoration methods such as blind deconvolution and contrast enhancement are applied to further improve such imagery.

Age and pain differences in non-verbal fluency performance: Associations with cortical thickness and subcortical volumes.

Musculoskeletal pain is a cause of disability in older individuals and is commonly associated with executive function deficits. In particular, verbal fluency deficits have been previously reported in older individuals with and without musculoskeletal pain, however, no studies have examined non-verbal fluency. The present study investigated non-verbal fluency performance in younger and older individuals and associations with clinical and experimental pain.

Usefulness of Ramp & Hold Procedures for Testing of Pain Facilitation in Human Participants: Comparisons With Temporal Summation of Second Pain.

Quantitative sensory testing (QST) is used to systematically interrogate normal responding and alterations of nervous system function, including pain-related central sensitization (CS). However, up to now, QST of CS in human subjects has been mostly focused on temporal summation of second pain (TSSP), has been difficult to perform, and has been associated with low reliability. In contrast, slow ramp & hold (RH) procedures are simpler tests of temporal summation and easier to perform.

Movement-evoked pain, physical function, and perceived stress: An observational study of ethnic/racial differences in aging non-Hispanic Blacks and non-Hispanic Whites with knee osteoarthritis.

Background: Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is a pervasive musculoskeletal condition, often exacerbated by movement-evoked pain (MEP). Despite established research demonstrating significant racial differences in OA pain, few studies have investigated ethnic/racial group differences in MEP and lower extremity function and their association with psychosocial factors, such as perceived stress. Therefore, the primary aims were: (1) to identify ethnic/racial group differences in persons with or at risk for knee OA pain based on MEP, physical performance, and perceived stress measures, and (2) to determine if perceived stress explains the relationship between MEP and function in non-Hispanic Blacks (NHBs) and non-Hispanic Whites (NHWs).

Chronic pain is associated with a brain aging biomarker in community-dwelling older adults.

Chronic pain is associated with brain atrophy with limited evidence on its impact in the older adult's brain. We aimed to determine the associations between chronic pain and a brain aging biomarker in persons aged 60 to 83 years old. Participants of the Neuromodulatory Examination of Pain and Mobility Across the Lifespan (NEPAL) study (N = 47) completed demographic, psychological, and pain assessments followed by a quantitative sensory testing battery and a T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging.