Background: Aggressive global pandemics such as COVID-19 can disrupt societies tragically, imposing a suspension to almost every field throughout the world; the orthodontic treatment and follow-up is no exemption. Objectives: To provide practical recommendations about resuming treatment for orthodontic patients during the “Return-to-Practice” phase and emphasize the validity of certain digital interceptive measures post global pandemics to minify the risk of infection spread. Materials and Methods: Sources of information pertaining to orthodontic/therapeutic implications during the COVID-19 pandemic were searched using electronic databases including COVID-19 Open Research Dataset (CORD-19 2020), Google Scholar, Scopus, PubMed, MEDLINE, reports from Centers for Disease Control (CDC), World Health Organization, in addition to recommendations by the American Association of Orthodontists (AAO) and British Orthodontic Society (BOS). Results: Many viruses are transmitted predominantly via droplets and secretions (cough, sneeze), providing the virus a path through the mucous membrane of the mouth, nose, and eyes. The virus can survive for days on plastic and stainless-steel objects. Tele-orthodontics has proven successful in performing many tasks that can be valid and helpful even post the pandemic. Conclusions: With the high expectations of a pandemic recurrence, attempts to reinforce tele-orthodontics, digital prescription and patient follow-up, and adherence to strict infection control measures are mandatory steps towards reducing contamination within dental/orthodontic practices.
Background: Cystinosis is a rare autosomal recessive lysosomal storage disease with high morbidity and mortality. It is caused by mutations in the CTNS gene that encodes the cystine transporter, cystinosin, which leads to lysosomal cystine accumulation. It is the major cause of inherited Fanconi syndrome, and should be suspected in young children with failure to thrive and signs of renal proximal tubular damage. The diagnosis can be missed in infants, because not all signs of renal Fanconi syndrome are present during the first months of life. Elevated white blood cell cystine content is the cornerstone of the diagnosis. Since chitotriosidase (CHIT1 or chitinase-1) is mainly produced by activated macrophages both in normal and inflammator
... Show MoreBackground: The microorganisms can impend the life of health care professional and particularly the dental practitioners. They can be transmitted by different ways like airborne and droplet transmission. The current study was carried out to identify whether the arch wires that received from the manufactures are free from microbial contamination and to determine the bacterial species attached to the arch wires. Materials and Methods: This study involved eighty samples, consisted of two types of arch wires (nitinol and stainless-steel) from four companies (3M, G&H, Jiscop, OrthoTechnology). These wires inserted in a plane tube that contains 10 -ml of (Tris [tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane] and EDTA (ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid) tri
... Show MoreAim: This study aimed to assessing orthodontic knowledge and attitude among general dentists and non-orthodontic specialists. Background: Early detection of orthodontic disorders is essentialin motivating patients to intervene prior to long term complications when the disorders are not recongised. Methods: A questionnaire was distributed amongst dentistsother than orthodontists. This questionnaire consisted of three sections. The first one aimed to collect demographic, educational level and practice type information. Further two sections consisted of closed-end questions designed to evaluateknowledge and attitude of orthodontics. Results: A total of 313 responses to the survey were submitted. No significant correlation was observed, e
... Show MoreThis study aimed to evaluate the effect of the COVID-19 outbreak on emergencies and pain among orthodontic patients attending a teaching hospital. The study was conducted among orthodontic patients receiving active orthodontic treatment or in a retention period at the College of Dentistry, University of Baghdad, Iraq. Their participation was voluntary, and they filled out an Arabic-translated questionnaire. The survey included general information, orthodontic problems, and a numerical rating scale for pain assessment. We used descriptive and inferential statistics (frequencies and intersecting frequencies), chi-square test and linear regression. Out of 75 orthodontic patients, only 54 (15 males and 39 females) were included in the s
... Show MoreA total global dominator coloring of a graph is a proper vertex coloring of with respect to which every vertex in dominates a color class, not containing and does not dominate another color class. The minimum number of colors required in such a coloring of is called the total global dominator chromatic number, denoted by . In this paper, the total global dominator chromatic number of trees and unicyclic graphs are explored.
One of the biomedical image problems is the appearance of the bubbles in the slide that could occur when air passes through the slide during the preparation process. These bubbles may complicate the process of analysing the histopathological images. The objective of this study is to remove the bubble noise from the histopathology images, and then predict the tissues that underlie it using the fuzzy controller in cases of remote pathological diagnosis. Fuzzy logic uses the linguistic definition to recognize the relationship between the input and the activity, rather than using difficult numerical equation. Mainly there are five parts, starting with accepting the image, passing through removing the bubbles, and ending with predict the tissues
... Show MoreThis study is intended to examine the concept of transcultural identity in the travel book The Global Soul: Jet Lag, Shopping Malls, and the Search for Home by (Iyer, 2001). Jeffries’ model of critical stylistics (2010) (henceforth, CS) has been selected to analyze the book. To be more specific, Negation is selected to analyze the concept under study. As such, the study aims at finding out how Negation is used to portray ideological meanings representing the concept of transcultural identity in one non-fictional travel book; and finding out the ideologies related to the concept analyzed. The analysis of the data shows that Negation is a suitable analytical tool to reach the ideational meaning of the text towards the concept of tra
... Show MoreBackground: The pandemic crisis prompted the world to adopt unexpected approaches to continue life as normally as possible. The education sector, including professors, students, and the overall teaching system, has been particularly affected. Objective: This study seeks to evaluate the benefits, challenges, and strategies related to COVID-19 from the perspectives of college students, particularly those in higher education in Iraq. Method: The online survey questionnaire was distributed via Google Forms and specifically aimed at undergraduate dental students. Results: A total of 348 students participated in the survey. There was a significant correlation (P > 0.01) between student satisfaction with hybrid learning and their experi
... Show MoreBackground: 37% phosphoric acid (PA) is the traditional enamel etching technique prior to bracket adhesion, yet it has been implicated in numerous enamel injuries. The purpose of the current study was to create a calcium phosphate (CaP) etching paste in a simplified capsule formula that can underpin clinically adequate bracket bond strength without jeopardizing the integrity of enamel upon the debracketing procedure. Materials and Methods: micro-sized hydroxyapatite (HA) powder was mixed with 40% PA solution to prepare experimental acidic CaP paste. Sixty human premolars were assigned into two groups of 30 each. Enamel conditioning was accomplished using 37% PA-gel for control group and CaP paste for e
... Show More