Accreditation of dental programs in Australia: a thematic analysis of recommendations, 1996-2004.

For dental education to continue to grow in Australia, there is a need to understand the effect of new innovations and to reflect on the way the profession as a whole has adapted to the highly innovative environment that is modern dental education. The Australian Dental Council's (ADC) accreditation activities for undergraduate dental programs is one constant over the last ten years that can be used to provide some insight into the reactions of schools to threats and opportunistic solutions brought about by change. In this study, accreditation reports were analyzed to provide trends in the themes of accreditation findings over the last ten years.

An innovation in Australian dental education: rural, remote and Indigenous pre-graduation placements.

Anticipating the looming crisis in access to dental services in rural and remote areas, the Western Australian Centre for Rural and Remote Oral Health developed an undergraduate rural placement program to provide dental students of The University of Western Australia opportunities for direct experience of rural and remote practice during the final year of the undergraduate curriculum. The Rural, Remote and Indigenous Placement program started in 2002 and, to the end of 2005, had placed 78 final year dental students in supervised clinical practice in rural, remote or Indigenous practice. In this study, the evolution of the program (2002-2005) is described and student evaluation of the program is reported.

Histologic effects of autologous platelet gel in skin flap healing.

Objective: To supply animal model data in the area of autologous platelet gel (APG) in the application of plastic and reconstructive surgical procedures in which clinical observation purports augmented hemostasis and optimal wound healing.

Methods: Paired skin flaps were dissected on each side of the backs of 12 New Zealand white rabbits. Prior to suture closure, APG was placed in the wound bed on 1 side (hereinafter, APG wounds), and the wound bed on the other side served as a control.

Oral health in rural and remote Western Australian indigenous communities: a two-year retrospective analysis of 999 people.

Aim: Remoteness is a significant factor determining the level of basic health, education and infrastructure services to which Aboriginal people have access. This study examines the oral health status and oral health behaviours of Aboriginal people attending rural and remote dental clinics.

Methods: Data were collected as part of routine delivery of dental services in five rural and remote dental clinics.

Non-working dental therapists: opportunities to ameliorate workforce shortages.

Background: Workforce development is acritical factor allowing delivery on government health priorities. Against a backdrop of increasingdemand for dental therapists being significantly higher than the levels of recruitment, it is widely acknowledged that rural and remote areas (having greater recruitment and retention issues) will face significant shortfall in therapist numbers as the workforce shortages take hold in dentistry. This study analysed the reasons for dental therapists leaving the profession, and factors that would promote the recruitment and retention of dental therapists, especially in rural and remote areas.

Error compensation during finger force production after one- and four-finger voluntarily fatiguing exercise.

The effect of muscle fatigue on error compensation strategies during multi-finger ramp force production tasks was investigated. Thirteen young, healthy subjects were instructed to produce a total force with four fingers of the right hand to accurately match a visually displayed template. The template consisted of a 3-s waiting period, a 3-s ramp force production [from 0 to 30% maximal voluntary contraction (MVC)], and a 3-s constant force production.

Cancer of the paranasal sinuses.

Carcinoma of the paranasal sinuses is a heterogeneous disease that is frequently locally advanced at presentation. Treatment commonly includes radical surgery followed by adjuvant therapy. Despite such aggressive therapy, the likelihood of locoregional failure is significant, resulting in poor survival, particularly with advanced tumors.

A four-year retrospective study of adult hospitalization for oral diseases in Western Australia.

Background: This analysis provides an insight into bed demand for adults for oral health related conditions in Western Australia.

Methods: Data were obtained from the Western Australian Hospital Morbidity Data System for the four financial years 1999-2000 to 2002-2003. This retrospective study analysed the principal diagnosis (ICD-10AM) obtained for all 53 646 adult patients diagnosed with an oral health related condition.

Hospitalization of Western Australian children for oral health related conditions: a 5-8 year follow-up.

Background: This study investigated in-patient oral health care provision for children under 18 years of age in Western Australia.

Methods: Hospitalizations of children for oral health conditions over a four-year period were analysed using data obtained from the Western Australian Hospital Morbidity Data System (HMDS). This study followed a previously published study examining similar data for 1995.

Pre-school child oral health in rural Western Australia.

Background: In light of the various challenges faced by public dental health services, especially when large geographical areas and isolated communities are concerned, targeting of high risk groups within these populations needs to be investigated. This study aimed to assess caries experience, dental health behaviour and dental service utilization among a sample of pre-school children in a rural community in Western Australia.

Methods: The study was a cross-sectional oral health survey of pre-school children between the ages of 2 and 5 in Carnarvon, Western Australia.

Fund allocation within Australian dental care: an innovative approach to output based funding.

Background: Over the last 15 years in Australia the process of funding government health care has changed significantly. The development of dental funding models that transparently meet both the service delivery needs for data at the treatment level and policy makers' need for health condition data is critical to the continued integration of dentistry into the wider health system.

Methods: This paper presents a model of fund allocation that provides a communication construct that addresses the needs of both policy makers and service providers.

Accessing government subsidized specialist orthodontic services in Western Australia.

Background: In Australia there is growing demand for dental services. This leads to more pressure on the oral health service providers, and in particular government subsidized dental care. Against this backdrop it is important that government dental services (rationed to health care cardholders) are provided equitably on a basis of need, not access.

Guided self diagnosis: an innovative approach to triage for emergency dental care.

Background: The basic model of triage, developed more than 200 years ago by the French, is based on categorization of patient needs and thus the urgency and time required for care. This model in various forms is used in most hospitals throughout the world.

Methods: In this study, a fully computerized guided self-diagnosis system (based on a neural network design) was designed, prototyped, developed and trialled by front line non-clinically trained personnel in emergency dentistry.

Dental therapy in Western Australia: profile and perceptions of the workforce.

Background: In 2002, the Centre for Rural and Remote Oral Health (CRROH) completed a rural oral health workforce survey which indicated that a high number of therapists, although registered, were not working as therapists. The aim of the present study was to develop a profile of the dental therapy workforce and analyse the perceptions of therapists.

Methods: In 2004, a postal questionnaire survey was undertaken amongst all registered dental and school dental therapists for 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003.

Reexamining the empirical relation between plant growth and leaf photosynthesis.

Technological advances during the past several decades have greatly enhanced our ability to measure leaf photosynthesis virtually anywhere and under any condition. Associated with the resulting proliferation of gas-exchange data is a lingering uncertainty regarding the importance of such measurements when it comes to explaining intrinsic causes of plant growth variation. Accordingly, in this paper we rely on a compilation of data to address the following questions: from both statistical and mechanistic standpoints, how closely does plant growth correlate with measures of leaf photosynthesis? Moreover, in this context, does the importance of leaf photosynthesis as an explanatory variable differ among growth light environments? Across a wide array of species and environments, relative growth rate (RGR) was positively correlated with daily integrals of photosynthesis expressed per unit leaf area (A), leaf mass (A), and plant mass (A).

Jaw fractures in the indigenous and non-indigenous populations of Western Australia: 1999-2003.

Little data exist on the analysis of jaw fractures in Australia, and none in Western Australia. This study was a retrospective analysis of all hospitalizations for jaw fractures in Western Australia between the years 1999-2000 and 2002-2003. The aims were to determine the incidence, distribution between males and females, different age groups, aboriginal and non-aboriginal groups, and rural and urban populations.

Tumor cell lines expressing the proteasome subunit isoform LMP7E1 exhibit immunoproteasome deficiency.

The immune system can recognize antigenic peptides derived from tumors by their presentation on MHC class I complexes to CTLs. Immunoproteasomes (i20S) can substantially enhance the MHC class I peptide repertoire, making down-regulation of i20S an important strategy of tumor cells in manipulating immune surveillance. Here, we report that human cancer cells express the nonfunctional immunosubunit-variant LMP7E1, in addition to, or instead of LMP7E2, in response to IFN-gamma.

Competition- and resource-mediated tradeoffs between growth and defensive chemistry in trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides).

Costs of defense are thought to maintain genetic variations in the expression of defense within plant populations. As with many plant species, aspen exhibits considerable variation in allocation to secondary metabolites. This study examined the independent and interactive effects of genotype, soil fertility and belowground competition on defensive chemistry and growth in trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides).

The role of therapeutic angiogenesis in tissue repair and regeneration.

Purpose: To provide the physician and registered professional nurse with an understanding of angiogenesis and an overview of therapeutic angiogenesis modalities used to manage wounds and other tissue repair situations.

Target Audience: This continuing education activity is intended for physicians and nurses with an interest in learning more about angiogenesis and therapeutic angiogenesis modalities to manage wounds and other tissue repair situations.

Objectives: After reading the article and taking the test, the participant should be able to:

Early intervention surveillance strategies (EISS) in dental student clinical performance: a mathematical approach.

Graduating dental practitioners requires the mastery of a number of skills and a significant body of basic information. Dental education is a complex combination of didactic and physical skill learning processes. It is necessary to develop appropriate tools to measure student clinical performance to allow the provision of interventional strategies at the right time targeted at the right individuals.

Accessing government subsidized specialist oral and maxillofacial surgery services in Western Australia.

Background: In Western Australia the vast majority of government subsidized dental specialist services is provided through the University of Western Australia (UWA). With predicted expanding demand for services and the high cost of providing specialist services it is important that access to specialist care is targeted at need. In this study the waiting lists for oral surgery services at UWA was analyzed to test the hypothesis that demand for oral surgical care is distributed evenly across the eligible population of Western Australia.

Single multiplex PCR assay to identify simultaneously the six categories of diarrheagenic Escherichia coli associated with enteric infections.

We designed a multiplex PCR for the detection of all categories of diarrheagenic Escherichia coli. This method proved to be specific and rapid in detecting virulence genes from Shiga toxin-producing (stx(1), stx(2), and eae), enteropathogenic (eae and bfp), enterotoxigenic (st II and lt), enteroinvasive (vir F and ipa H), entero-aggregative (aaf II), and diffuse adherent (daa E) Escherichia coli in stool samples.

Interferon-gamma, the functional plasticity of the ubiquitin-proteasome system, and MHC class I antigen processing.

The proteasome system is a central component of a cascade of proteolytic processing steps required to generate antigenic peptides presented at the cell surface to cytotoxic T lymphocytes by major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecules. The nascent protein pool or DRiPs (defective ribosomal products) appear to represent an important source for MHC class I epitopes. Owing to the destructive activities of aminopeptidases in the cytosol, at most 1% of the peptides generated by the ubiquitin-proteasome system seems to be made available to the immune system.

Oral health workforce in rural and remote Western Australia: practice perceptions.

Objective: In this study an analysis was undertaken to determine: (i) the major factors that influence oral health professionals to practise in rural areas and determine practice location; (ii) what assists the professional oral health workforce to remain in rural practice; and (iii) what the main reasons are for leaving rural practice.

Design: A postal survey was undertaken among all registered oral health professionals in Western Australia.

Setting: Rural and remote Western Australia.