Introduction: Low back pain is characterized as a pain in the area between the 12th rib and the low gluteal fold. This pain can affect different ages. During the growth peak, the postural control system is rearranged; therefore, the maintenance and fixation of these structures is crucial for the performance of daily activities. Thus, the prevalence of low back pain and their risk factors must be investigated, so that effective preventive measures against low back pain may be taken. Objective: To investigate the prevalence of low back pain and the risks associated to it during the third infancy, that is, children aged between 6 and 12 years old. Method: A transversal and observational study with 150 children of both genders, students from private institutions of Lavras, Minas Gerais, in 2016. Questionnaires were applied in order to understand the characteristics of the sample (age, gender, school year, ethnic group, parents’ educational level, means of transportation to go to school and situations that caused or aggravated low back pain) and their low back pain (in the last 12 months). Results: The rate of occurrence of low back pain in the senior year of school was 20%. According to the chi-squared, “school year” and “ethnic group” (pardos) were the variables associated to low back pain. Sitting, mainly in front of the computer, was reported to be the main cause of the symptoms. Conclusion: Low back pain presented a prevalence of 20% with no significant difference between genders, but there was an association of low back pain and variables related to the school year and the ethnic group.

Introduction: With the increasing number of elderly people, greater care is required for this population, and zeal for health and quality of life becomes an important goal in healthy aging. Elderly people can achieve excellent results involving cognitive training based on brain plasticity. Objective: To verify the effectiveness of cerebral gymnastics in the cognitive state and well-being of institutionalized elderly women. Method: Clinical trial performed with nine institutionalized elderly women, mean age of 80.2 years old (± 9.1). The Subjective Well-being Scale and tests (clock, verbal fluency, figure recognition) were administered before and after ten weeks of the exercise program (eight exercises performed in two weekly meetings, involving figures, words and objects). The data normality was verified using the Shapiro-Wilk test, followed by Student t tests for analysis of SWB and Wilcoxon for analysis of figure recognition, clock-drawing test and verbal fluency. Results: Significant improvement in the incidental and immediate memory 1 and 2 (p = 0.007), verbal fluency (p = 0.011, p = 0.025 and p = 0.007) and the clock-drawing test (p value = 0.046). No significant results were found for SWB (p = 0.357 and p = 0.389). Conclusion: Brain gymnastics beneficially modified cognitive performance. Well-being did not show significant improvements.

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Introduction: Since some dental materials may be aggressive to a person’s body, studies involving such materials seem to be necessary. Objective: This study was conducted to evaluate the genotoxicity of dental materials through micronucleus (MN) test. Material and methods: Exfoliated buccal cells of 4-to-12 year-old children, who were on some type of dental treatment, were collected either before or after the treatment ending. Each sample was composed of 1,000 cells per patient. Student’s t test was used for comparison. Results: The dental materials were divided into 3 groups, as follows: cement, monomers, and their combination. Treatments using monomer + cement-based materials were found to increase significantly the number of binucleated (BN) cells, (p < 0.05) which indicate several degenerative nuclear changes. Conclusion: The combination of cement-based dental material with monomers increases the cytotoxic action of dental materials.