Introduction: Salivary melatonin is a critical antioxidant that contributes to oral health by mitigating oxidative stress. Psychological stress linked to thumb sucking may disrupt oral homeostasis, leading to conditions such as dental caries and fungal infections. Aim: This study explores the relationships between thumb sucking, salivary melatonin levels, dental caries, and the presence of Candida albicans (CA) in children. Materials and methods: A case-control study was conducted with 60 children aged 4-5 years at the University of Baghdad’s College of Dentistry. Participants were divided into thumb-sucking (n=30) and non-thumb-sucking (n=30) groups. Salivary melatonin levels were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA), dental caries were assessed via the dmfs index, and CA counts were quantified on Sabouraud dextrose agar (SDA). Statistical analyses were performed, including t-tests, ANOVA, and correlation assessments. Results: Thumb-sucking children exhibited significantly lower salivary melatonin levels (28.620±2.278 pg/mL) compared to controls (34.525±2.142 pg/mL; p=0.044). The thumb-sucking group also had higher dmfs scores (15.033±1.449 vs. 8.667±0.899; p=0.000) and greater CA counts (18.900±1.048 vs. 13.583±0.549; p=0.000). Negative correlations were observed between salivary melatonin levels and the severity of dental caries, while positive correlations linked CA with dental caries. Conclusions: Thumb sucking adversely affects pediatric oral health by reducing salivary melatonin, increasing dental caries risk, and promoting fungal overgrowth. Early intervention to curb thumb-sucking behaviors may mitigate these risks and improve oral health outcomes.
Background: Depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity, it can affect a person's thoughts, behavior and sense of well-being. It can affect oral health and lead to an increased risk of dental caries. Dental caries is the most common oral infectious diseases that stresses the immune system and causes changes in cellular and molecular components of peripheral blood and C-Reactive Protein is one of these components, considered a key biomarker of inflammation. This study was conducted to assess the effect of depression status on dental caries among 17 years old secondary school female students in relation to salivary C-Reactive Protein. Materials and Methods: A cross sectional study was carried and the whole sample composed of
... Show MoreBackground: Beta thalassemia major is an inherited disorder that may affect general and oral health.The purpose of this study was toassess the severity of dental caries in relation to oral cleanliness, mutans streptococciamong a group of boys with beta thalassemia majorin comparison with a control group. Materials and Methods: The study involved 30 boys with BTM aged 10-12 years compared to 30 healthy boys with the same age group. d1-4mfs and D1-4 MFS indices were applied (Muhlemann, 1976), the viable counts of mutans streptococci in stimulated saliva were also determined. Results: The entire thalassemic group was caries-active. For both dentitions, a higher dmfs/DMFS values were recorded for study compared to control group, difference was
... Show MoreBackground: Pain and the usage of local anesthetic agents are still real problem in pediatric dentistry, for these reasons, the use of minimal invasive dentistry (MID) in regard to the patient comfort is important especially for children, anxious and uncooperative patients. Chemomechanical caries removal (CMCR) methods involve the selective removal of the carious dentine hence it avoided the painful removal of the sound dentine and the anxiety resulted due to the vibration of the hand piece which is also decreased thus it appears to be more acceptable and comfortable to the patient. Aims of this study: This study was conducted among group of children to assess and compare the anxiety rating scale (during and after treatment) between the
... Show MoreBackground: Non-nutritive sucking habits are common in infants and toddlers. One of the most common non-nutritive sucking habits is pacifier; its prevalence varies from one population to another. This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of pacifier sucking habit among children aged 1-5 years old in Baghdad city and to assess its effect on the occlusion of primary dentition concerning posterior crossbite. Materials and methods: The study was carried out among 1222 children aged 1-5 years old, from which 50 children with continues pacifier sucking habit were chosen to be the study group, compared to 50 children without any sucking habit (control group) matching the study group in age and gender. Children were examined clinically t
... Show MorePlant extracts occupied a big place in diseases treatment and preserving human health because, they contain many active substances that can be exploited in the field of pharmaceutical manufacturing from natural materials. Therefore, this study was conducted to evaluate the effect of different concentrations of plant extracts for each of Nigella sativa, Alliumsativum and Allium cepa against the fungal growth of Candida albicans that cause many skin diseases and infections to humans as well as Trichophyton mentagrophytes, which affects the hair, skin and nails. These two fungi have been isolated and diagnosed from people who have skin infection. Both fungal isolates were treated with extracts of Nigella sativa, Alliumsativum and Allium cepa
... Show MoreBackground: Candida albicans is a prevalent commensal that can cause severe health problems in humans. One such condition that frequently returns after treatment is oral candidiasis. Aim: the goal of this research is to evaluate the efficiency of 940 nm as a fungicidal on the growth of Candida albicans in vitro. Material and Methods: In vitro samples (fungal swabs) were taken from the oral cavity of 75 patients suffering from oral thrush. Following the process of isolating and identifying Albicans. The samples are divided into four groups:(Group 1): Suspension of C. albicans was put in a solution of saline as a control group. (Group 2): Suspension of C. albicans that had been treated with nystatin. (Group 3): Suspension of C. albica
... Show MoreBackground: Blood group system and the ability to taste phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) are the most studied traits in human genetics which have been extensively used in describing genetic variations among human populations around the world that may had an effect on dental caries. The aims of present study were to investigate the caries experience among students with different bitter taste threshold in relation to blood type. Materials and Methods: The sample of present study includes dental students female aged19-21 years. The diagnosis of dental caries was done according to the criteria of Manjia et al, 1989 recording decayed lesion by severity (D1-4) MFS. Furthermore, bitter taste sensitivity was measured according to PTC (phenylthiocarbamid
... Show MoreThis Study aimed to studying the effect of Volatile oil extracted from the leaves of Myrtus communis on the growth and activities of the following types of bacteria: Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pyogenes, Klebsilla pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and the yeast Candida albicans. The results showed an inhibitory effect of the oil on both the growth and activity of the tested microbes. This was reflected by the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pyogenes, Klebsilla pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa which was: (2.5, 1.25, and 2.5,5 % respectively), and the yeast (5) %. Also, the Minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) to the bacteria mentioned above was (5, 2.5,5,10 % respectivel
... Show MoreThe main objective of this study is to determine whether the use of He-Ne Laser (632.8 nm wavelength and power 0.5 mW) is an eligible and effective tool to kill or reduce the cell viability of Candida albicans isolated from complete upper dentures. Twenty one swabs were taken from the complete upper dentures. Only six swabs showed positive cultures for C. albicans. The isolate was divided into two groups, group I was not irradiated (control), and group II was irradiated by He-Ne Laser for different periods (10, 15, 20, and 30) min. After irradiation, the results showed a significant reduction in the viable cell count and colonies diameters especially at exposure periods 10 and 15 min. Although the low power He-Ne Laser was not eradicating t
... Show MoreBackground: Small cardamom or green cardamom is the dried fruit of the tall perennial herbaceous plant, Elettaria cardamomum Maton belonging to the family Zingiberaceae. The major use of small cardamom on world wide is for domestic culinary purpose and in medicine. This study was conducted to test the effect of small cardamom extracts on Mutans streptococci and Candida Albicans in comparison to 0.2% chlorhexidine gluconate and de-ionized water in vivo. Materials and Methods: Mutans streptococci and Candid Albicans were isolated, purified and diagnosed according to morphological characteristic and biochemical test. In this experiments, the effect of control agents and small cardamom extracts as a mouth rinses was tested on the saliva
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