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.
The qualified subjects for this study included 33 patients with benign and malignant oral tumors aged 15-75 years and 31 matched age and gender healthy subjects used as control. Proteins measurements included total protein, albumin, globulines in sera and saliva samples, and immunoglobulins (IgG, IgM, IgA) in sera samples of control and patients. Meanwhile, polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) was used to differentiate between protein patterns in both serum and saliva samples among the studied groups. The gel was also stained for glycoprotein to evaluate as well the changes in glycoprotein contents. For total protein, the results revealed a signifigant increase (P?0.01) in both samples (serum and saliva) of patient group. Albumin conce
... Show MoreABSTRACT Background: work-related musculoskeletal disorders represent an important occupational health issues among dentists especially neck and low back complaints. Biomarkers of tissue damage as results of occupational physical demands could be used for detection of work related musculoskeletal disorders. Aim: The aim of this study was to assess work- related musculoskeletal disorders, physical work load index, selected salivary biomarkers (Creatine kinase and C - reactive protein) and to find the relation among them. Subjects and Methods: Study participants are consisted of 112 dentists. They were selected from college of dentistry /Baghdad University, health care center in Bagdad city. They were of both gender and aged between 40-45 yea
... Show MoreOral carcinoma is the 6th most common cancer in the world. MicroRNAs are small non-coding single stranded RNAs. They have been shown to be capable of altering mRNA expression; thus some are oncogenic or tumor suppressive in nature. The salivary microRNA-31 has been proposed as a sensitive marker for oral malignancy since it was abundant in saliva more than in plasma. A total of 55 whole saliva samples were collected from 35 cases diagnosed with OC their ages and gender matched with 20 healthy subjects. TaqManq RT-PCR was performed for RNA samples. Mean age was 52.23+13.73 years in cases (range:17-70 years) with male predominance represented 69%. Risk of smoking and alcoholism was highly significant. The median fold change of miR-31 was sign
... Show MoreBackground: Oral health represents an important base for human well-being; the heath of the body begins from oral cavity. Great deal has been applied to increase knowledge in the field of oral health in order to develop appropriate preventive program. This study was conducted in order to estimate the percentage and severity of dental caries and gingivitis among children attending Preventive Department in Collage of Dentistry, University of Baghdad and to determine dental treatment need for those patients, further more to study the relation of these variables with dental knowledge. Materials and Methods: The study group consists of 163 children with an age ranged from 6 to 14 years, who attended the preventive clinic for the first time to be
... Show MoreBackground: The autism spectrum disorder (ASD) describes a wide range of symptoms, including difficulty with social interaction and communication skills. Controversial thinking about oral health of children with ASD, in general may have a lower hygiene level than healthy individuals, low caries rate and high body weight in comparison to healthy children. This study was conducted to assess the oral health status in relation to nutritional status among institutionalized autistic children and adolescents. Materials and methods: From 12 institutes in Baghdad, the study group contained 364 child and adolescent with ASD (Male= 294, Female=70), while control group included 441 normal child and adolescent (Male=357, Female=84) from primary and seco
... Show MoreBackground: Periodontal diseases are inflammatory diseases affecting the supporting tissues of the teeth. One of the leading environmental factors that are closely related not only to the risk but also to the prognosis of periodontitis is smoking. This study aimed to evaluate the influence of smoking on periodontal health status and to measure the levels of matrix metalloproteinase-9 in smokers and nonsmokers chronic periodontitis patients, also it aimed to test the correlation between the levels of matrix metalloproteinase-9 and the clinical periodontal parameters. Materials and Methods: Five milliliters samples of un-stimulated whole saliva and full-mouth clinical periodontal recordings (plaque index, gingival index, bleeding on probing,
... Show MoreBackground: diagnostic radiology field workers are at elevated risk level for systemic and oral diseases like periodontal diseases. This study was aimed to estimate the periodontal condition and salivary flow rate among diagnostic radiology workers. Material and method: The sample for this study consisted of a study group radiographers (forty subjects) working for 5 years at least and control group consisted of nurses and laboratory workers away from radiation (forty subjects) in Baghdad hospitals. All the 80 subjects aged 30-40 year-old and looking healthy without systemic diseases. Plaque, gingival, periodontal pocket depth and clinical attachment loss indices were used for recording the periodontal conditions. Under standardized condi
... Show MoreBackground: The COVID-19 virus outbreak had a massive effect on many parts of people's lives, as they were advised to quarantine and lockdown to prevent the virus from spreading, which had a big impact on people's mental health, anxiety, and stress. Many internal and external factors lead to stress. This negatively influences the body's homeostasis. As a result, stress may affect the body's capacity to use energy to defend against pathogens. Many recent investigations have found substantial links between human mental stress and the production of hormones, prohormones, and/or immunological chemicals. some of these researches have verified the link between stress and salivary cortisol levels. The aim of this study is to measure salivary corti
... Show MoreBackground: Hormonal changes during pregnancy have been suggested to predispose women to gingivitis. Furthermore, advance periodontal infection in pregnant women may pose a threat to the placenta and uterus and may increase the like hood of preterm delivery. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of salivary interleukin -6 (IL-6) level and periodontal health among preterm postpartum women. Materials and Methods: Salivary samples were taken from 33 preterm postpartum women (study group) and 33 full term postpartum women (control group). The supernatant salivary samples were assayed using atomic absorption spectrophotometer. Plaque, calculus and gingival indices were used for recording the oral hygiene and gingivitis also probing
... Show MoreBackground: During pregnancy many physiological, anatomical and biochemical changes take place that affect almost all body systems. In the oral pregnant women have serious changes such as more sever dental caries. This study was conducted to measure dental caries severity and selected salivary variables (salivary flow rate, PH and viscosity)and to find the relation of dental caries with these salivary variables. Subjects, materials and methods: The study group consisted of 60 pregnant women that were divided into three equal groups according to trimester (20 pregnant women in each trimester).They were selected randomly from the Maternal and Child Health Care Centers in Baghdad city, the age range was 20-25 years. In addition to 20 unmarried
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