Flavored Tobacco Product Use Among California Adolescents Before and Immediately After a Statewide Flavor Ban.

Introduction: In December 2022, a California law banned the retail sale of most flavored tobacco products (including e-cigarettes). This investigation evaluates adolescents' use of flavored tobacco before and after enactment.

Methods: The Teens Nicotine and Tobacco Project included online surveys of California adolescents (age 12-17) in 2022 (N=5127) and 2023 (N=5015) that assessed past 30-day use of various tobacco products, flavored product use, and perceived access to flavored e-cigarettes.

Cost-effectiveness analysis design for interventions to prevent children's oral disease.

Introduction: In 2015, the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) launched the Multidisciplinary Collaborative Research Consortium to Reduce Oral Health Disparities in Children, supporting four randomized trials testing strategies to improve preventive care. A Coordinating Center provides scientific expertise, data acquisition and quality assurance services, safety monitoring, and final analysis-ready datasets. This paper describes the trials' economic analysis strategies, placing these strategies within the broader context of contemporary economic analysis methods.

Census tract geospatial analysis comparing social determinants of health with tooth loss in California seniors: An ecologic study.

Objectives: Individual-level social determinant of health (SDOH) measures alone may insufficiently explain disparities in edentulism among seniors. Therefore, the authors examined the correlation of census tract-level SDOH and residential racial segregation measures with edentulism in Californian adults aged ≥65 years old.

Methods: Explanatory variables were obtained from Healthy Places Index (HPI), the National Cancer Institute and diversitydatakids.

Perceived discrimination and youth vaping: The role of intersectional identities.

Introduction: Electronic cigarettes (also termed e-cigarette or vapes) often contain nicotine, an addictive psychoactive substance, which can have harmful effects during adolescence. Frequent experiences of discrimination are one risk factor shown to increase susceptibility to tobacco use, especially for individuals that identify as a social minority. Applying Intersectionality Theory, this research examined the relationship between youth experiences of discrimination and vape use at the intersection of race/ethnicity and sexual orientation.

Patterns in Tobacco, E-Cigarette, and Cannabis Advertising Exposure Among California Adolescents and Associations With Future Use Expectations.

Background: Exposure to tobacco, e-cigarette, or cannabis marketing is associated with adolescent use. Few studies have examined advertising exposure prevalence and patterns across these products concurrently.

Methods: This study assessed past 30-day recalled exposure to promotional messages about tobacco, e-cigarettes ("vapes" on the survey), and cannabis ("marijuana") from various sources among California adolescents (ages 12-17) in the 2022 Teens, Nicotine, and Tobacco Online Survey ( = 2530).

Flavored Tobacco and Nicotine Use Among California Adolescents: Preferences by Use Experience and Survey Format Effects.

Purpose: This study assessed flavored tobacco use among adolescent e-cigarette, cigarette, cigar, hookah, and smokeless tobacco users; specific e-cigarette flavor preferences; risk profiles of youth that use various flavors; and the impact of survey question wording on prevalence.

Methods: Cross-sectional data from 4,956 California adolescent participants (aged 12-17 years) in the Teens, Nicotine, and Tobacco 2021-2022 online panel survey estimated the survey-weighted prevalence of flavored tobacco use. An embedded randomized experiment assessed survey wording effects (i.

Asian Americans' and Pacific Islanders' preferences in recruitment strategies and messaging for participation in the CARE registry: A discrete choice experiment.

Introduction: This discrete choice experiment (DCE) identified Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) adults' preferences for recruitment strategies/messaging to enroll in the Collaborative Approach for AAPI Research and Education (CARE) registry for dementia-related research.

Methods: DCE recruitment strategy/messaging options were developed in English, Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese. AAPI participants 50 years and older selected (1) who, (2) what, and (3) how they would prefer hearing about CARE.

Flavors increase adolescents' willingness to try nicotine and cannabis vape products.

Background: Certain product characteristics, such as flavor, may increase adolescents' willingness to try vaped nicotine and cannabis (marijuana) products.

Methods: A discrete choice experiment embedded within the 2021-2022 California Teens Nicotine and Tobacco Project Online Survey was administered to a non-probability sample of N = 2342 adolescents ages 12-17. Participants were sequentially presented four randomly-generated pairs of hypothetical vape products that varied in device type (disposable, refillable), content (nicotine, marijuana, "just vapor"), and flavor (seven options) and asked which of these (or neither) they would be more willing to try if a best friend offered.

Calibration and reliability testing of a novel asynchronous photographic plaque scoring system in young children.

Objectives: The Simplified Oral Hygiene Index for Maxillary Incisors (OHI-MIS) is a novel plaque scoring system adapted for young children. This study describes calibration training and testing used to establish the inter- and intra-rater reliability for OHI-MIS measured from clinical photographs.

Methods: Two raters from the Coordinated Oral Health Promotion Chicago (CO-OP) and one from the Behavioral EConomics for Oral health iNnovation (BEECON) randomized controlled trials (RCTs) underwent calibration with gold standard raters, followed by annual re-calibration.

COVID-19 Impact on Community-Based Participatory Randomized Controlled Trials-Lessons From the Oral Health Disparities in Children Consortium.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on nearly every sector of science and industry worldwide, including a significant disruption to clinical trials and dentistry. From the beginning of the pandemic, dental care was considered high risk for viral transmission due to frequent aerosol-generating procedures. This resulted in special challenges for dental providers, oral health care workers, patients, and oral health researchers.

Coronavirus Disease Update on Epidemiology, Virology, and Prevention.

In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 as the first coronavirus-initiated pandemic. COVID-19's fast-paced global spread with a broad range of clinical manifestations compelled health regulatory organizations, public health professionals, and researchers to update their information about the disease and provide individual- and community-based guidelines, solutions, and regulations to break the disease cycle, mitigate person-to-person transmission, and reduce cross-contamination in healthcare settings. In this review, the authors provide known facts and updated information about SARS-CoV-2 virology and its new variants, transmission routes, reported clinical symptoms, epidemiology, and infection control and prevention guidelines with a focus on a hierarchy of controls in dental settings.

Functional adaptation of interradicular alveolar bone to reduced chewing loads on dentoalveolar joints in rats.

Objectives: The effects of reduced chewing loads on load bearing integrity of interradicular bone (IB) within dentoalveolar joints (DAJ) in rats were investigated.

Methods: Four-week-old Sprague Dawley rats (N = 60) were divided into two groups; rats were either fed normal food, which is hard-pellet food (HF) (N = 30), or soft-powdered chow (SF) (N = 30). Biomechanical testing of intact DAJs and mapping of the resulting mechanical strains within IBs from 8- through 24-week-old rats fed HF or SF were performed.

Ectopic biomineralization in kidney stone formers compared to non-stone formers.

Background: Kidney stone formers (SFs) are at increased risk of stroke, myocardial infarction, and atherosclerosis of the carotid and coronary arteries. These cardiovascular and urologic pathologies can result from ectopic biomineral deposition. The objectives of this study are: (I) to evaluate risk factors for ectopic biomineralization, and (II) to characterize the overall burden of ectopic minerals in known SFs compared to non-stone formers (NSFs) matched for these risk factors.

Family monetary incentives as a value-based care model for oral hygiene: rationale and design of the BEhavioral EConomics for Oral health iNnovation (BEECON) trial.

Background: Effective prevention-focused, value-based strategies are needed to improve oral health. Despite evidence that monetary incentives can motivate healthy behavior, well-powered studies have yet to examine incentives for improving children's oral hygiene.

Aim: Describe the rationale and design of the BEhavioral EConomics for Oral health iNnovation (BEECON) trial, which tests lottery-based monetary incentives as a consumer-oriented, value-based care model for improving children's oral hygiene.

Monetary incentives for improving smartphone-measured oral hygiene behaviors in young children: A randomized pilot trial.

Aims: To assess feasibility, acceptability, and early efficacy of monetary incentive-based interventions on fostering oral hygiene in young children measured with a Bluetooth-enabled toothbrush and smartphone application.

Design: A stratified, parallel-group, three-arm individually randomized controlled pilot trial.

Setting: Two Los Angeles area Early Head Start (EHS) sites.

A new Mentor Evaluation Tool: Evidence of validity.

Background: Mentorship plays an essential role in enhancing the success of junior faculty. Previous evaluation tools focused on specific types of mentors or mentees. The main objective was to develop and provide validity evidence for a Mentor Evaluation Tool (MET) to assess the effectiveness of one-on-one mentoring for faculty in the academic health sciences.

Design and sample characteristics of COordinated Oral health Promotion (CO-OP) Chicago: A cluster-randomized controlled trial.

COordinated Oral health Promotion (CO-OP) Chicago is a two-arm cluster-randomized trial with a wait-list control. The primary aim is to evaluate the efficacy of an oral health community health worker (CHW) intervention to improve oral health behaviors in low-income, urban children under the age of three years. Exploratory aims will determine cost-effectiveness, and if any CHW intervention impact on child tooth brushing behaviors varies when CHWs are based out of a medical clinic compared to a community setting.

A qualitative study of the multi-level influences on oral hygiene practices for young children in an Early Head Start program.

Background: Individual child-level risk factors for Early Childhood Caries (ECC) have been studied, but broader family- and community-level influences on child oral hygiene behaviors are less well understood. This study explored multiple levels of influence on oral hygiene behaviors for young children in Early Head Start (EHS) to inform a future behavioral intervention targeting children from low-income families.

Methods: Twenty-four semi-structured interviews were conducted with mothers of children under 4 years old, enrolled in the home visitor (HV) component of one EHS program in Los Angeles, CA, who participated in the BEhavioral EConomics for Oral health iNnovation pilot study (BEECON) in 2016-7.

Developing and Testing Electronic Health Record-Derived Caries Indices.

Caries indices, the basis of epidemiologic caries measures, are not easily obtained in clinical settings. This study's objective was to design, test, and validate an automated program (Valid Electronic Health Record Dental Caries Indices Calculator Tool [VERDICT]) to calculate caries indices from an electronic health record (EHR). Synthetic use case scenarios and actual patient cases of primary, mixed, and permanent dentition, including decayed, missing, and filled teeth (DMFT/dmft) and tooth surfaces (DMFS/dmfs) were entered into the EHR.

At the crossroads of oral health inequities and precision public health.

Objectives: This paper reviews the precision public health literature pertaining to oral health, identifies possible threats that could inadvertently increase health inequities, and proposes potential opportunities that precision public health could utilize to reduce oral health inequities.

Methods: The health sciences literature was reviewed and supplemented with new data to identify important issues relating to precision medicine, precision oral health, precision public health, and health equity.

Results: Examples from general health and oral health were provided to illustrate salient concepts.

Predictors of Smokeless Tobacco Susceptibility, Initiation, and Progression Over Time Among Adolescents in a Rural Cohort.

Background: Use of smokeless tobacco (ST, moist snuff and chewing tobacco) is elevated among male rural youth, particularly participants in certain sports, including baseball.

Objectives: This study aimed to assess factors associated with adolescent male athletes' ST-related behaviors over time, including: baseline use, initiation, and progression in use intensity in a school-based longitudinal cohort.

Methods: Baseline and one-year follow-up questionnaires assessed sociodemographic characteristics, environmental factors, and tobacco-related perceptions and behaviors among 9- to12th-grade interscholastic baseball players in 36 rural California schools.

Oral Health Disparities in Children: A Canary in the Coalmine?

Despite being largely preventable, oral diseases are still a major public health problem in child populations in many parts of the world. Increasingly, however, oral diseases disproportionately affect socially disadvantaged groups in society. It is unjust and unfair that children and families from disadvantaged backgrounds experience high levels of oral diseases.

Relationship between autoantibody associated with rheumatoid arthritis and tooth loss.

Introduction: This study evaluated the relationship between serum Rheumatoid Factor (RF) levels and tooth loss in a community-dwelling elderly Japanese women. It was hypothesised that women with high baseline RF levels would experience greater tooth loss over 10 years than age-matched women with lower baseline serum RF levels.

Materials And Methods: The study population consisted of 197 women aged 70 years with ≥12 teeth at baseline.