Background: Mouth breathing can lead to introduce cold, dry unprepared air that insults the tissue of oral cavity, nasopharynx and lung, leading in turn to pathological changes in oronasal cavity, nasopharyngeal and other respiratory tissue, mouth breathing associated with nasal obstruction may lead to many health problems, in particular oral health problems such as inflammation of gingiva, oral dryness, change in oral environment that may decrease pH, salivary flow rate and increase bacteria and dental caries.Aims of the present study were to assess the oral health condition among mouth breather associated with nasal obstruction, including dental caries, oral cleanliness and gingival health condition as well as to evaluate the changes in salivary physical characteristics and salivary mutans streptococci counts, and their relation to oral variables in comparison to a control group. Materials and Methods: Thirty patients with mouth breathing associated with nasal obstruction (15 females and 15 males) were selected as a study group with an age range (18-22) years old, all subjects were examined by ENT specialist to confirm mouth breathing. A 30 gender and age matched healthy looking subjects without nasal obstruction were selected as control. The diagnosis and recording of dental caries was according to severity of dental caries lesion through the application of D1_4MFS(Manji et al., 1989). Plaque index of (Silness and Loe, 1964) was used for plaque assessment; gingival index of (Loe and Silness, 1963) was used for gingival health condition assessment. Stimulated salivary samples were collected according to (Tenovuo and Lagerlof, 1996) and the following variables were recorded: microbiological analysis included the salivary counts of mutans streptococci, salivary flow rate, salivary pH (potential of hydrogen) and then measurement of salivary viscosity by using Ostwald's viscometer. Results: Results of the present study showed that the mouth breathing group had statistically highly significant, higher plaque and gingival indices than nose breathing group (P<0.01) with a positive highly significant correlation between them in mouth breathing and nose breathing groups (r=0.56, r= 0.64, respectively).The salivary flow rate was lower among mouth breathing with highly significant difference than nose breathing (P<0.01), also salivary pH was lower among mouth breathing but with significant differencecompare to nose breathing (P<0.05); statistically a negative highly significant correlation was recorded among mouth breathing group between salivary flow rate with gingival index (r= -0.56). It has been found that salivary viscosity was not statistically significant difference between mouth breathing group and nose breathing group. The salivary viscosity was found to be inversely significantly correlated with salivary flow rate among mouth breathing group (r= -0.38). While it was positively not significantly correlated with plaque index, gingival index and counts of mutans streptococci among mouth breathing group. Data analysis of the present study showed that salivary mutans streptococci counts among mouth breathing group were higher than that among nose breathing group, difference was statistically highly significant (P<0.01). Conclusion: Mouth breathing associated with nasal obstruction may have an effect on oral health status, leading to an increase in periodontal disease and changes in dental caries.
Recently on the dermatological fields, the serum levels and the roles of Zn, Cu and Mg have been studied especially in acne vulgaris, but the results were controversial. The aim of the present study is to investigate a relationship between the severity of acne and the serum levels of zinc (Zn), copper (Cu) and magnesium (Mg) and to demonstrate the status of serum levels of zinc, copper, and magnesium in Iraqi male patients with acne vulgaris and to compare it with those of healthy controls.This case controlled study was conducted in the Department of Dermatology and Venerology and in the Poisoning Consultation Center of Baghdad Teaching Hospital between May 2009 to January 2010. Forty- five male patients with acne vulgaris, their a
... Show MoreProbiotics are live microbes that give many health benefits to human beings and animals, the most studied and commonly used probiotics are Gram-positive bacteria; lactobacilli and bifidobacteria. At nowadays, Lactobacillus spp. constitute more than two-thirds of the total numbers of probiotic species. The present study aimed to characterize Lactobacillus that locally isolated from human mouth and feces as probiotics. A total of three Lactobacillus isolates; Lactobacillus fermentum Lb2, Lactobacillus rhamnosus Lb9, and Lactobacillus paracasei Lb10 were investigated in respect to acid and bile salts tolerance, antibiotics susceptibility, and cell surface hydrophobicity in vitro using bacterial adhesion to hydrocarbons method. In compa
... Show MoreAbstract Background: The human epidermal growth factor receptor 2(HER2) proto-oncogene is overexpressed or amplified in approximately 15%-25% of invasive breast cancers. Approximately 35% of HER2-amplified breast cancers have coamplification of the topoisomerase II-alpha (TOP2A) gene encoding an enzyme that is a major target of anthracyclines. Hence, the determination of genetic alteration (amplification or deletion) of both genes is considered as an important predictive factor that determines the response of breast cancer patients to treatment. The aims of this study are to determinate TOP2A status gene amplification in a set of Iraqi patients with breast cancer that have had an equivocal (2+) and positive HER2/neu by immunohistochemistry
... Show Moremixtures of cyclohexane + n-decane and cyclohexane + 1-pentanol have been measured at 298.15, 308.15, 318.15, and 328.15 K over the whole mole fraction range. From these results, excess molar volumes, VE , have been calculated and fitted to the Flory equations. The VE values are negative and positive over the whole mole fraction range and at all temperatures. The excess refractive indices nE and excess viscosities ?E have been calculated from experimental refractive indices and viscosity measurements at different temperature and fitted to the mixing rules equations and Heric – Coursey equation respectively to predict theoretical refractive indices, we found good agreement between them for binary mixtures in this study. The variation of th
... Show MoreAim: To determine the expression of tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases (TIMP-2) in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) and the difference in its expression level between positive and negative HPV-16 (human papilloma virus- 16) OSCC patients. Methods: This study was conducted on 33 biopsies obtained from patients with OSCC and 10 normal oral mucosa as controls. In situ hybridization (ISH) was used to investigate the presence of HPV-16, while immunohistochemistry (IHC) was used to estimate the expression level of TIMP-2. Results: The TIMP-2 was expressed in 27 (81.8%) of OSCC sections with no significant difference between its expression level in HPV-16 positive and HPV-16 negative OSCC cases (p=0.058). TIMP-2 was found to be hig
... Show MoreBackground: Osteoarthritis is a complicated, chronic disorder of cartilage and bone, associated with homeostasis of bio-elements. The current study aims to assess the role of serum progranulin levels among Iraqi patients with knee osteoarthritis. Patients and Methods: The study encompassed 50 patients aged 52.50 ± 3.12 years (25 males and 25 females), admitted to the at the Baghdad Medical City through the period from November 2021 to March 2022. All individuals were identified by physicians in a Rheumatology and Rehabilitation Outpatient Clinic and the clinical data was collected along with the assess¬ment of biochemical parameters. Fasting serum glucose, lipid profile, calcium, magnesium, alkaline phosphatase, vitamin D3, and p
... Show MoreBack ground: Oral lichen planus is a chronic inflammatory disease that affects the mucous membrane of the mouth. Several researchers suggest that oxidative stress is implicated in the pathogenesis of this disorder. It has been hypothesized that melatonin is powerful anti-oxidants and can easily cross the cell membrane and is considered a free radical scavenger of Hydroxid, Oxygen and Nitrogen dioxide, cortisol as a stress hormone and the immunoglobulin A as first line of defense and protection to the mucous membrane of the mouth are interrelated factors for the emergence of oral lichen planus. Aim of this study was to evaluate the level of melatonin, Cortisol and IgA in saliva of patients with oral lichen planus lesions in comparison with p
... Show MoreThe aim of this study is to compare the effects of three methods: problem-based learning (PBL), PBL with lecture method, and conventional teaching on the understanding of thermodynamics, group work and self-directed learning skills among physics undergraduates. The actual sample size comprises of 122 students, who were selected randomly from the Physics Department, College of Education in Iraq, for academic year 2011-2012. In this study, the pre and posttest were done and the instruments were administered to the students for data collection. Inferential statistics were employed to analyze data. The independent variables were the PBL, the PBL with lecture method, and the conventional teaching. Dependent variables of statistical analysis were
... Show MoreThe current study investigates the role of smart sports bracelets on physical and motor skills development among youth volleyball players, closing the research gap of wearable technology in sport training. Understanding the necessity of up-to-date training measures of handicaps for perfection of athletic performance, the research is focused on comparison of the effect of strength, agility and flexibility achieved with the use of smart sports bracelet with real time feedback (test group) and without (control group). The research adopted a quasi-experimental design through a sample of (12) players et al.-Karkh Sports Club, (6) of them were in the experimental group (who used the smart bracelet) and (6) of them were in the control group (who u
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