1,721,070 research outputs found
Impact of skeletal divergence on oral health-related quality of life and self-reported jaw function
No full textObjective: To investigate the differences in oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) and self-reported jaw function between patients with hyperdivergent and normodivergent facial types. Methods: Eighty patients with a distinctively hyperdivergent facial type (mandibular plane angle greater than 2 standard deviations, or 42 degrees) and 80 controls were individually matched according to age, sex, ethnicity, and treatment stage. Data were collected using self-report questionnaires such as the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-14) and Jaw Functional Limitation Scale (JFLS-8). Results: The mean age of the patients was 17.2 +/- 4.6 years (range, 12-49 years), with most (65.0%) being female and of New Zealand European origin (91.3%). Individuals with hyperdivergent facial types had higher overall and social domain scores on the OHIP-14 (p 0.05). Conclusions: Jaw function appears to be similar in individuals with hyperdivergent and normodivergent facial morphologies. However, those with hyperdivergent facial types are more likely to self-report poorer OHRQoL than are those with normal faces, especially in relation to social aspects
Impact of functional orthodontic treatment on facial attractiveness of children with Class II division 1 malocclusion
No full textBackground/objectives: Whether orthodontic treatment with functional appliances improves facial aesthetics is still under debate. This study aimed to determine whether functional orthodontic treatment improves the facial attractiveness of patients with Class II division 1 malocclusion. Materials/method: Extraoral lateral photographs of 20 children with Class I (CLI, 11.7 ± 0.8 years), and before (T1) and after treatment (T2) photographs of patients with Class II division 1 (CLII T1 and CLIIT2; mean age ± SD = 11.1 ± 0.6 years) treated with functional appliances, were transformed into black silhouettes. Three panels of examiners including 30 orthodontists (39.0 ± 10.1 years), 30 dentists (40.0 ± 9.7) and 30 laypersons (39.0 ± 9.2) evaluated the attractiveness of patients’ silhouettes using a 100-mm visual analogue scale, and the sagittal position of patients’ upper lip, lower lip, and chin using a 3-point Likert scale.Two-way ANOVA and a chi-square test were used to test differences among groups. Statistically significance was set as P < 0.05. Results: The silhouettes of CLIIT2 individuals were more attractive than those of the other groups (all Ps < 0.001).The upper lip, lower lip, and the chin of these individuals were judged to be normally positioned in 69.5 per cent, 74.9 per cent, and 72.3 per cent of the assessments, respectively (all Ps < 0.05). Limitations: This study did not account for the psychological profile of the examiners, which may have affected the ratings. Conclusions/implications: Orthodontic treatment with functional appliances is associated with a superior facial profile attractiveness. Functional treatment should be considered as a treatment option to improve the facial appearance of children with Class II division 1 malocclusion
Meta-model Assisted Evolutionary Optimization of Cellular Automata: An Application to the SCIARA Model
No full textThe automatic optimization of Cellular Automata (CA) models often requires a large number of time-consuming simulations before an acceptable solution can be found. As a result, CA optimization processes may involve significant computational resources. In this paper we investigate the possibility of speeding up a CA calibration through the approach of meta-model assisted search, which is widely used in many fields. The adopted technique relies on inexpensive surrogate functions able to approximate the fitness corresponding to the CA simulations. The calibration exercise presented here refers to SCIARA, a CA for the simulation of lava flows. According to the preliminary results, the use of meta-models enables to achieve a significant gain in computational time
The perception of COVID-19 among Italian dentists: An orthodontic point of view
No full textCOVID-19 has severely impacted dentists, who are at a great risk of infection. This study aimed to investigate if dentists are anxious about returning to their daily activities, and what the perception of the risk is for dentists and orthodontists regarding orthodontic procedures. An online questionnaire, including the Patient Health Questionnaire-4 (PHQ-4), was sent to Italian dentists during the final days of the lockdown with items about anxiety, fear, distress, perceived risk for operators, and concerns about orthodontic patients caused by working during the COVID-19 outbreak. Data were analyzed with a chi-square test and logistic regression analysis. The level of significance was set as p < 0.05. A total of 349 dentists completed the survey, including 183 orthodontists. Returning to their daily work activity was a source of anxiety for 192 participants and this was associated with the level of distress (odds ratio (OR) = 3.7; p < 0.001). Most of the orthodontists (67.6%) thought that they would increase the number of working hours during the week (OR = 1.8; p = 0.007). Italian dentists were mostly scared to return to their daily activities because they considered their jobs a high risk to them and their families. Dentists with an exclusive/prevailing orthodontic activity were forced to increase their working day during the week
Occlusion, orthodontics, and temporomandibular disorders: Cutting edge of the current evidence
No full textThe relationship between occlusion and temporomandibular disorders (TMD) represents one of the major controversies reported in the scientific literature. Nevertheless, sound evidence from large population-based surveys point toward weak and inconsistent associations, supporting that the role of the occlusion in the etiology of TMD should not be overstated. Also, despite the type of device, traditional orthodontic treatment seems to play a neutral role with regard to the onset of TMD: in particular, this therapeutic approach has been reported not to prevent or to increase the risk of TMD development. It is time to shift the concept of occlusion from a purely mechanical interpretation, based on the teeth-to-teeth relationship (peripheral input), to a broader view that includes the interpretation of the input at the level of the central nervous system. In this context, patients’ individual adaptability must be considered by clinicians to prevent iatrogenic maladaptive behaviors. Indeed, orthodontists and general dentists should be aware about the multifactorial etiology of TMD and should be instructed regarding the available tools to manage patients before, during, and after any dental or orthodontic intervention
Differences in craniofacial growth of Class II individuals from different decades: A retrospective study
No full textAbstract
Objectives: To detect changes in mandibular growth between a historical group (HG)
from the American Association of Orthodontics Foundation Craniofacial Growth
Legacy Collection (AAOF Legacy) and a contemporary group (CG) of normodivergent
or hypodivergent Class II untreated subjects.
Setting and Sample Population.: The sample included radiographs from the AAOF
Legacy and from the University of Naples ‘Federico II’ collected during a previous RCT.
Materials & Methods: The HG was composed of 26 individuals (around 1960) from the
AAOF Legacy (15 from theBurlington Growth Study, nine from the Oregon Growth Study
and two from the Michigan Growth Study) who were matched by sex, age and race with
the 26 individuals of the CG (around 2010). Two lateral cephalograms obtained at T0 and
T1 (12 months) were selected, and one examiner performed the cephalometric measure‐
ments according to Pancherz's method. The normal distribution of data was confirmed
by the Shapiro‐Wilk test, MANOVA analysis and t test for paired and unpaired data were
performed. The level of significance was set according to Bonferroni's correction.
Results: At T0 and T1, the between‐group comparisons revealed greater linear di‐
mensions for Maxillary base, Maxillary incisor and Mandibular incisor in the CG than in
the HG (P ≤ 0.002). No significant difference was found in the growth rate for linear
skeletal measurement between the HG and the CG.
Conclusions: In this study, the cephalometric analysis showed larger maxillary dimen‐
sions for the CG than the HG, while no differences were shown between the growth
rate and direction of the two groups
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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