Impact of self-perceived oral health and socio-economic factors on oral health-related behavior in Estonian adults.

Objective: To identify which socioeconomic factors are affecting oral health-related behavior and to provide suggestions for improving the population's oral health.  Materials and methods: The survey includes population groups from age 35 and older from all 15 Estonian counties and major cities (n = 2,376). The study is based on data from a nationwide Estonian Adult Oral Health Survey questionnaire.

Estonian Dental Students' Oral Health-Related Knowledge, Attitudes and Behaviours (KAB): National Survey-Based Study.

The strategic plan for dentistry and oral health in Estonia of 2030 focuses on oral health promotion and disease prevention through undergraduate dental curricula and fostering public health-oriented research among students. The present study was designed as a descriptive cross-sectional study to evaluate oral health-related knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours (KAB) of dental students in Estonia. The study was carried out in the spring semester of 2020, and it used a modified version of the Hiroshima University Dental Behavioural Inventory (HU-DBI).

Impact of polyols on Oral microbiome of Estonian schoolchildren.

Background: Oral microbiome has significant impact on both oral and general health. Polyols have been promoted as sugar substitutes in prevention of oral diseases. We aimed to reveal the effect of candies containing erythritol, xylitol or control (sorbitol) on salivary microbiome.

Dental fear and anxiety in Estonian and Vietnamese schoolchildren: A comparative study of two populations.

Dental fear and anxiety (DFA) has the impact on the development of dental caries. Ethnic background and oral health care system may contribute to DFA model. The aim of the study was to compare DFA in relation to dental health between Estonian and Vietnamese schoolchildren and to determine DFA cutoff point for schoolchildren of two countries.

The influence of mothers' oral health behaviour and perception thereof on the dental health of their children.

Objective: The study aims to investigate how mothers' oral health behaviour and perception thereof influence the dental health in their children.

Methods: A total of 556 Vietnamese mother-child pairs participated in the current study. Mothers self-reported their oral status and oral health behaviour and perception.

Long-Term Effect of Erythritol on Dental Caries Development during Childhood: A Posttreatment Survival Analysis.

Objective: To assess the effect of daily consumption of erythritol, xylitol, and sorbitol candies on caries development in mixed dentition during a 3-year intervention and 3 years after the intervention.

Methods: 485 Estonian first- and second-grade primary school children participated. Children were randomly allocated to an erythritol, xylitol, or sorbitol (control) group.

Effect of erythritol and xylitol on dental caries prevention in children.

Objective: The aim of this study was to test the efficacy of long-term, daily intake of erythritol and xylitol candy, compared with sorbitol candy, on the development of enamel and dentin caries lesions.

Methods: The study was a double-blind randomized controlled prospective clinical trial. Altogether 485 primary school children, first- and second-graders at baseline, from southeastern Estonia participated in this 3-year intervention.

Effect of three-year consumption of erythritol, xylitol and sorbitol candies on various plaque and salivary caries-related variables.

Objective: The objective of the present paper is to report results from oral biologic studies carried out in connection with a caries study.

Methods: Samples of whole-mouth saliva and dental plaque were collected from initially 7- to 8-year-old subjects who participated in a 3-year school-based programme investigating the effect of the consumption of polyol-containing candies on caries rates. The subjects were randomized in three cohorts, consumed erythritol, xylitol, or sorbitol candies.

Children's dental fear in relation to dental health and parental dental fear.

Objective: The aim was to (1) assess the proportion of children with dental fear, to (2) compare results obtained by a single fear question to those obtained by using a set of 11 fear questions, to (3) study associations between children's dental fear and their dental health, and to (4) compare children's dental fears to those of their parents.

Materials And Methods: A cross-sectional sample of 344 8-10-year-old schoolchildren from South Estonian primary schools participated. Children's fears were measured with the modified Dental Subscale of the Children's Fear Survey Schedule (CFSS-DS).

Prevalence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in elective surgical patients at a public teaching hospital: an analysis of 1039 patients.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is an increasingly common cause of postoperative surgical site infections (SSIs). It is unclear, however, whether asymptomatic colonization or nosocomial acquisition of MRSA results in postoperative SSI. We conducted a retrospective review of patients screened for MRSA between May 2008 and October 2010 at our institution.

Caries experience in the permanent dentition among first- and second-grade schoolchildren in southeastern Estonia.

Objective: This study aims to assess the caries experience among first- and second-grade children in the elementary schools of southeastern Estonia.

Materials And Methods: A representative sample of 485 children was studied. The mean age of children in the first grade was 7.

Caries prevention with xylitol lozenges in children related to maternal anxiety. A demonstration project.

Aim: This was to compare the effect of a prevention program between children of anxious and non-anxious mothers.

Methods: Mothers (n=120) with high and low dental anxiety scores (DAS>15 and DAS <8, respectively), and with high levels of mutans streptococci (>10(5)cfu/mL) were recruited at a maternity clinic of Tartu, Estonia. Two groups: 30 highly anxious, and 30 non-anxious mothers used xylitol (6 g/day) for 33 months and a non-treatment group of 60 mothers, both highly and low anxious (30 in each sub-group), acted as controls.

Measuring Dental Caries in the Mixed Dentition by ICDAS.

Caries has traditionally been assessed with WHO criteria including only obvious caries lesions. ICDAS has been developed to detect also the enamel caries lesions. This study aims to study caries and the associations of the number of caries lesions between the permanent and primary molars with ICDAS in the mixed dentition of the first and second grade primary school children.

Is thoracoscopic decortication sufficient for the treatment of empyema?

Before thoracoscopy became popular in the 1990s, thoracotomy and decortication was the treatment of choice for empyema thoracis not responding to tube thoracostomy. An Institutional Review Board-approved, retrospective review of all patients treated for empyema between September 1, 2006, and August 31, 2009, at Kern Medical Center was conducted. A total of 37 patients (male=33; female=4) with a mean age of 43.

Preoperative exercise Vo2 measurement for lung resection candidates: results of Cancer and Leukemia Group B Protocol 9238.

Introduction: A stepwise approach to the functional assessment of lung resection candidates is widely accepted, and this approach incorporates the measurement of exercise peak Vo2 when spirometry and radionuclear studies suggest medical inoperability. A new functional operability (FO) algorithm incorporates peak exercise Vo2 earlier in the preoperative assessment to determine which patients require preoperative radionuclear studies. This algorithm has not been studied in a multicenter study.

Dental health and oral mutans streptococci in 2-4-year-old Estonian children.

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the dental health and presence of mutans streptococci (MS) in 2-4-year-old Estonian children.

Methods: The dental health of 472 2-4-year-old children was examined using a mirror and a penlight in 14 daycare centres representing seven communities around Estonia. The mean (+/-SD) age of the children was 41.

Similarity of the effects of erythritol and xylitol on some risk factors of dental caries.

Several sugar alcohols (polyols) have been promoted as potential sugar substitutes in caries limitation. However, differences in the effects of simple alditol-type sugar alcohol homologues on dental plaque have not been compared in clinical tests. The effects of 6-month use of erythritol (a sugar alcohol of the tetritol type), xylitol (a pentitol) and D-glucitol (sorbitol, a hexitol) were investigated in a cohort of 136 teenage subjects assigned to the respective polyol groups or to an untreated control group (n = 30-36 per group).

Phase III intergroup study of talc poudrage vs talc slurry sclerosis for malignant pleural effusion.

Study Objective: To demonstrate the efficacy, safety, and appropriate mode of instillation of talc for sclerosis in treatment of malignant pleural effusions (MPEs).

Design: A prospective, randomized trial was designed to compare thoracoscopy with talc insufflation (TTI) to thoracostomy and talc slurry (TS) for patients with documented MPE.

Measurements: The primary end point was 30-day freedom from radiographic MPE recurrence among surviving patients whose lungs initially re-expanded > 90%.

Frequent exposure to invasive medical care in early childhood and operative dental treatment associated with dental apprehension of children at 9 years of age.

Aim: This was to study prospectively a cohort of children as to whether behaviour at a 3-year examination, exposure to medical care and operative dental treatment are associated with each other, and with the level of dental apprehension at 9 years of age.

Methods: Data were collected at three subsequent dental examinations of 126 children (67 boys, 59 girls). Cooperation, general health condition and operative dental treatment during the preceding 3 years were obtained at dental examinations with 3-year intervals, i.

A randomized, controlled trial comparing thoracoscopy and limited thoracotomy for lung biopsy in interstitial lung disease.

Background: Lung biopsies are frequently needed to diagnose diffuse interstitial lung diseases. A prospective randomized, controlled trial comparing limited thoracotomy (open lung biopsy) and thoracoscopy for lung biopsy was done.

Methods: Ambulatory patients with a clinical diagnosis of diffuse interstitial lung disease were randomized to thoracoscopy or limited thoracotomy.

Simple technique for sizing and positioning tracheal stents.

Accurate placement of tracheobronchial stents is essential, since little adjustment can be made once the stent is deployed. We describe the use of an inexpensive tool, a radio-opaque ruler, to aid in the proper positioning of tracheobronchial stents.

Sex-associated differences in survival of patients undergoing resection for lung cancer.

Background: The increasing incidence of lung cancer among women prompted us to assess whether sex-associated differences exist in the presentation and survival of patients who undergo major lung resection for lung cancer.

Methods: We performed a retrospective review of patients who had major lung resection for lung cancer from January 1980 to June 1998.

Results: There were 265 men and 186 women.