Objectives: The objectives of this study were to determine oral hygiene practices among university students; establish any association between oral hygiene practices and sociodemographic variables and find out the factors that may influence the choice of oral hygiene products in this group. Materials and Methods: Self-administered questionnaire containing information on age, gender, material used for tooth cleaning, and frequency of tooth cleaning was completed by the students in their hostels. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 20.0. Test of significance was carried out using Chi-square and logistic regression analysis. Association was considered statistically significant when P ≤ 0.05. Results: In the present study, all the participants irrespective of the age, gender, and field of study used toothbrush and toothpaste as the oral hygiene tool. The use of dental floss, mouth rinse, and interproximal brush was not recorded in this study. About 24% of the participants reported using fluoride-containing toothpastes. Cleaning the teeth twice daily was significantly related to age (P = 0.046), gender (P = 0.01), and field of study (P = 0.032). Logistic regression analysis shows that the relationship between the sociodemographic characteristics of the participants and their frequency of tooth cleaning was statistically significant. The cost was the major factor influencing the selection of oral hygiene tools. Conclusion: The oral hygiene practices of the participants were suboptimal. Less than two-third of the sample cleaned their teeth twice daily. Age, gender, and field of study were significant determinants of oral hygiene practice. The major factor which influenced the selection of toothpaste and toothbrush was the cost.

Objective: To evaluate the Bolton ratio in the Maratha population in Pune with near ideal occlusion. Materials and Methods: Fifty study casts were made from impression obtained from patients (25 males and 25 females) aged between 15 and 30 years visiting the Department of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics at Sinhgad Dental College and Hospital, Pune. The mesiodistal widths of all maxillary and mandibular teeth from right first molar to left first molar were measured with a digital caliper to calculate the Bolton ratio. The readings were then used to compute the anterior and total Bolton ratios. t-test was used for the statistical analysis. Results: The mean overall and anterior ratios were found to be 92.73 and 80.48 with standard deviation of 2.69 and 2.86, respectively. The range of overall ratio was 81.91–96.75, and the range of anterior ratio was 74.75–86.45. The values obtained from this study indicated that there was a statistically significant difference between the overall and anterior ratios of Maratha and Caucasian participants. Conclusion: It can be suggested that new values should be obtained for the Maratha population as the values were found to be significantly different from the Bolton values obtained for Caucasian population. Hence, population-specific standards are necessary to be formed for clinical assessment.

Objectives: The objective of this study is to assess the oral health status and oral health behavior among 12-year-old urban and rural school children and to evaluate the relative effect of sociobehavioral risk factors on caries experience. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted which included urban and rural subgroups of 12-year-old school children. The final study population covered two groups: 12 years rural (n = 261) and urban school children (n = 264). Data were collected and compared using Chi-square test. Logistic regression analysis was done to assess the importance of variables associated with dental caries. Results: Highly significant differences (P < 0.001) were observed between rural and urban school children for the use of oral hygiene aids, frequency of tooth brushing, and dental services utilization. Dental caries level was significantly higher (P < 0.03) for rural children. Decayed teeth (DT) component constituted majority of decayed, missing, and filled teeth (FT) in both population. 55.6% of the rural school children required treatment compared to 42.4% of urban school children. Mean Oral Hygiene Index-Simplified values, mean DT, and FT were statistically significant for urban and rural school children. Logistic regression analysis showed that government or private school, dental care utilization, socioeconomic status, and malocclusion status were significantly associated with dental caries. Conclusion: Poor oral health and high treatment needs of children belonging to low socioeconomic background is an alarming situation. Strengthening of oral health care in the rural and underprivileged section should be priority of the policymakers.

Forensic odontology is the application of dentistry to law and delineates the overlap between dental and legal professions. Pedodontist plays an important role in forensic odontology by applying his expertise in various fields such as accidental or nonaccidental oral trauma, child abuse and neglect, age determination, dental records, and mass disasters by examination of the teeth and jaws structure for clues. These dental findings/records may be helpful in forensic identification wherein an unidentified individual can be identified using dentition. Information of teeth record remains throughout life and beyond, due to their physiologic variations, pathology, and effects of therapy. Lip prints and palatal rugae patterns can also lead us to important information and help in person's identification. Teeth can also help in determining gender of the skeletonized remains using dental DNA. Forensic odontology also plays role in crime investigation caused by dentition, such as bite marks. Odontologist can help physician in evaluation of bite marks due to abuse. The aim of this article is to discuss the role of pedodontist in various aspects of forensic odontology and procedures needed for examination, identification, and investigations of bite marks.

In today's world, it is very necessary to understand the importance of being eco-friendly in every facet of our lives. The color “green” has healing power and denotes renewal, growth, and hope. “Eco-friendly dentistry” attempts to reduce the detrimental impact of dental practices on the environment and promote environmental awareness and sustainability to patients. This paper attempts to cover all possible aspects of making a dental practice eco-friendly, both in a dental perspective as well as a general perspective. While establishing an eco-friendly dental workplace, the dentist needs to assess his choices in planning the infrastructure and purchasing of equipment and dental materials. Eco-friendly dentistry is a newly evolving practice of dentistry, which encompasses a simultaneous devotion to sustainability, prevention, precaution, and a minimally invasive patient-centric, as well as global-centric treatment. There are two main avenues for implementing eco-friendly dentistry: (1) appropriate policy development and implementation and (2) dentists taking responsibility/ownership in the absence of policies and regulations. Although in some cases, it may take a little extra effort or money; dentists throughout the world are doing their best to reduce the environmental impact of the dental practice. Although the commitment of one small dental office cannot save the planet, certainly, the collective efforts of many small offices as well as large dental hospitals/colleges can ensure that dentists, at least, will not be responsible for destroying it. This article discusses various factors that can be incorporated into dental practice that can help make dentistry eco-friendly.

With the advent of new and developing technology into the field of dentistry, it becomes increasingly important for dentists to become familiar with these developing techniques. The use of lasers in oral and maxillofacial surgery has seen a substantial increase in both, applications of lasers for different techniques, and also the number of surgeons opting to use them on a regular basis. This article serves to update practitioners on the development and current applications of these modern tools in regular practice so as to efficiently perform dental treatment and minimize complications associated with conventional techniques. The authors have reviewed articles on the subject from PubMed, Science Direct, and relevant textbooks so as to compile an accurate history of the evolution of lasers, its introduction to the field of dentistry and also its current applications in the field of oral and maxillofacial surgery.

Transmigration of impacted mandibular canine is an uncommon clinical entity. In this condition, not only the tooth fails to erupt in its normal position, but also it crosses the midline within the mandible. The orthodontic correction of this condition is rather impossible. In case of development of dentigerous cyst associated with the impacted canine, surgical extraction along with the enucleation of the cyst is the only treatment of choice. We present a similar case managed surgically in a 13-year-old male adolescent.

Fracture of mandible is relatively less common in pediatric population when compared to adults. Management of pediatric mandibular fracture is a very complex issue and requires accurate and early treatment. Although the general principles of treatment remain the same as adult but various factors which influence the choice of management: age, dentition status, site involved, amount of displacement, number of fractures, and socioeconomic status. This case report describes a conservative way of management of moderately displaced mandibular fracture with the help of closed reduction achieved using intermaxillary fixation (IMF) with help of elastics using orthodontic brackets. A 9-year-old male child was treated for body of mandible fracture using this technique. The IMF was removed after 3 weeks and adequate bone union was demonstrated clinically and radiographically.

Root resorption of the tooth may be a pathologic or physiologic process resulting in loss of root dentin and cementum. Broadly, it can be of two types – external and internal root resorption. The location of these resorptions can vary from cervical to apical region. Most often, the etiology of it may attribute to some kind of traumatic injuries. External apical resorption, if left untreated for a long period, may result in an open apex with the loss of normal apical constriction and this poses a problem while obturation due to the lack of apical stop. The case becomes of a big concern when such resorptions occur simultaneously along with open apex as these may produce difficulties while managing. Therefore, the objective of the present article is to discuss the root resorption and management of a rare case involving maxillary central incisor with internal root resorption, external apical resorption, and open apex with 2 years follow-up.

The loss of teeth invariably is followed by the loss of soft tissue. There is a high incidence (91%) of residual ridge deformity following anterior tooth loss reported in literature; the majority of these are Class III defects that require soft-tissue surgery to augment the ridge defects. Esthetic surgical replacement is difficult and unpredictable, particularly when papilla in the esthetic zone needs to be restored. One choice is a fixed removable prosthesis retained by an Andrews bar and sleeve system. The prosthesis is designed to meet the requirements for esthetics, comfort, phonetics, hygiene, and favorable stress distribution to the abutment and soft tissues. One of the major advantages of an Andrews's bridge over fixed prosthesis is that it can be removed by the patient for improved oral hygiene access. This article describes the procedure for fabricating a new custom cast “ribbed” bar and sleeve design Andrews bridge.

Esthetic and functional rehabilitation of completely edentulous maxillary arch with fixed implant supported prosthesis is a challenging task. Newer technologies such as computer assisted design computer assisted manufacturing (CAD CAM) and cone beam conventional tomography play an important role in achieving predictable results. Full mouth porcelain fused to metal (PFM) individual crowns on CAD CAM milled titanium framework provides positive esthetic and functional outcome. This is a case report of rehabilitation of partially edentulous maxillary arch patient. Staged rehabilitation of this patient was planned. In the first stage, root canal treatment of key abutment teeth was done, nonsalvageable teeth were removed, and immediate interim overdenture was provided. In the second stage, five Nobel Biocare dental implants were placed. After integration impressions were made, CAD CAM milled titanium bar was fabricated. Individual PFM crowns were made and cemented. This method gives better esthetic compared to acrylic fused to metal hybrid prosthesis with the advantage of retrievability just like screw retained prosthesis. Hence, this technique is good for rehabilitation of patients with high esthetic demands.