To find out the effect of commercially available energy drinks on tooth enamel erosion, analyzed pH, buffering capacity, and the content of some of the inorganic components selecting 4 energy drinks that has high affinity of the products currently being sold. In addition, by observing the degree of erosion before and after immersion in energy drink by surface microhardness and scanning electron microscope (SEM) the results were as follows: Acidity of energy drink ʻBurn Intenseʼ was the lowest as 2.78±0.01 highest on distilled water as 6.475±0.01. ʻBurn Intenseʼ buffering capacity was 3.48±0.155 at pH 5.5, 1.88±0.15 at pH 7.0 which is the highest, and ʻHot6ʼ was 1.71±0.37, 1.23±0.35 on each of it showing the lowest points. Ca content on energy drink was the highest at ʻVolt Energyʼ as (77.21±2.70 mg/kg), the lowest at ʻHot6ʼ as (0.98±0.05 mg/kg). P content was the highest on ʻHot6ʼ(1.34±0.05 mg/kg) and detected at ʻRed Bullʼ. Enamel surface hardness variation of the energy drinks before and after immersion showed rapid decrease at ʻRed Bullʼ (66.65±35.60), and ʻVolt Energyʼ (61.96±31.42), ʻBurn Intenseʼ (58.53±24.84), ʻHot6ʼ (53.99±60.26) was in order. Distilled water, the control group, showed significant difference with the experimental group (p＜0.05). But there was no significant difference between energy drinks. At SEM observation and analysis, ʻBurn Intenseʼ was the most severe demineralization, ʻVolt Energyʼ, ʻHot6ʼ, ʻRed Bullʼ, distilled water was in order. In the above results, taken together there were no statistically differences between energy drinks but significant difference in comparison with distilled water. In addition, at SEM observation and analysis all energy drink caused dental erosion, especially ʻBurn Intenseʼ, has the lowest acidity, was serious. Thus, it is believed to provide a variety of oral health education and information about energy drinks that can affect the erosion of the teeth so public have the right to be recognized and reasonable dental care.

The purpose of this study was to develop a dental communication course in dental hygiene schools that included theory, practice, and skill for effective dental communication. Thirty-six senior dental hygiene students in a dental hygiene school took a dental communication course and responded to a questionnaire. The instrument used in the study was a modified form of Kim's communication skill self-assessment sheet. The self-assessment questionnaire about communication competencies was administered before and after the class, and the difference between scores at each time point was analyzed using the Wilcoxon signed rank sum test. Among seven elements of dental communication competencies, the competency of "information gathering" was significantly improved (p=0.008). Students' scores on perception of the importance (p=0.019) and necessity (0.016) of a communication course significantly increased after the course. Competencies in communication are essential requirement for dental hygienists. This study showed the possibility of communication skill training. An objective evaluation tool regarding students' communication competencies should be developed. Further studies with larger samples size are needed to develop a standardized comprehensive communication course in dental hygiene schools.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate abrasion of Icon ® infiltrated, sound bovine enamel by using confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) after toothbrush abrasion tests. Methods: Sound bovine enamel specimens whose Vickers Hardness Number ranged from 280 to 320 were prepared. To measure abrasion, specimens were allocated to groups on the basis of tooth brushing stroke frequencies. Tooth brushing stroke frequencies were categorized into 5 groups: 1,800, 5,400, 10,800, 21,600 and 43,200 strokes. Both infiltration depth of Icon ® and the abrasion depth were measured by CLSM. Results: Mean infiltration depth of Icon ® for sound bovine enamel was 98.6 μm. There was no statistically significant difference in enamel abrasion depth between groups with 5,400 strokes and 10,800 strokes, but the abrasion depth increased with further increase in tooth brushing stroke frequencies (P<0.001). The mean abrasion depth of resin infiltrated bovine enamel after 43,200 tooth brushing strokes was 17.45 μm. Conclusions:The magnitude of abrasion after 43,200 tooth brushing strokes, which corresponds to brushing 3 times a day for 4 years, was less than 20 μm. This result suggests that abrasion by tooth brushing would not be a clinical problem for resin infiltrated enamel.

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Background: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the association between metabolic syndrome and periodontal disease in Korean adults. Methods: This study analyzed the screening data of 12,686 adults aged ≥19 years, including demographic characteristics, lifestyle habits, and each component of metabolic syndrome, obtained from the sixth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey database. Periodontal health status was measured by the community periodontal index. Subjects with three or more risk factors were considered as having metabolic syndrome. The Rao-Scott chi-square test was performed to assess the relationships between demographic characteristics, lifestyle habits, components of metabolic syndrome, and periodontal disease. Logistic regression analysis was performed based on the complex sample to evaluate the relationship between metabolic syndrome and periodontal disease. Results: The prevalence of periodontal disease was higher among the subjects with advancing age, lower average household income and education level, those working in production, residents of eup-myeon areas, in past or current smoker, those with excessive alcohol consumption habit in a week, and reduced brushing frequency and the use of oral care products (p＜0.001). Each component of metabolic syndrome was associated with higher prevalence of periodontitis in the subjects with abnormal than in those with normal levels (p＜0.001). The prevalence of periodontal disease in subjects with metabolic syndrome was approximately 1.443 times higher than that in normal subjects (odds ratio,1.443; p＜0.001). Conclusion: This study confirmed the association between metabolic syndrome and periodontitis in Korean adults, and further studies will be needed to determine the causal relationship between the two conditions.