Objective A large number of digital tools supporting students have emerged over recent years which are encouraged in tutoring. A study conducted at the University of Montpellier (France) among 3rd, 4th, and 5th year dentistry students aimed primarily to identify the type of pedagogical support the students preferred according to their discipline. The secondary aim was to evaluate the student satisfaction after establishing a new pedagogical support. Materials and Methods A total of 165 questionnaires were completed. The main questions concerned pedagogical use of information technology and multimedia tools, choice of dentistry disciplines most justifying their use, and pedagogical gaps in these disciplines. Next, a program of pedagogical videos was developed for the most corresponding discipline. A satisfaction survey was finally conducted. Results Nearly 95.7% of students found online classes and E-learning via the virtual learning environment useful, with the most requested type being video. Demand was stronger in conservative dentistry and endodontics (27%), prosthetics (19%), and periodontology (18%). The most apprehended disciplines were endodontics in the 3rd year, endodontics and prosthetics in the 4th year, and prosthetics in the 5th year. Regarding satisfaction, 100% of students appreciated these videos and 99.4% considered they fulfilled expectations. Conclusion All students requested videos, especially for clinical subjects such as endodontics. With digital technology, our world is experiencing a technological revolution resulting in many daily life changes. With students evolving in a digitally saturated society, our ways of learning and teaching need rethinking. Digital technology can help improve learning effectiveness and develop pedagogical practices more adapted to today's students.

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BackgroundMost dental implant systems are presently made of two pieces: the implant itself and the abutment. The connection tightness between those two pieces is a key point to prevent bacterial proliferation, tissue inflammation and bone loss. The leak has been previously estimated by microbial, color tracer and endotoxin percolation.MethodsA new nitrogen flow technique was developed for implant-abutment connection leakage measurement, adapted from a recent, sensitive, reproducible and quantitative method used to assess endodontic sealing.ResultsThe results show very significant differences between various sealing and screwing conditions. The remaining flow was lower after key screwing compared to hand screwing (p = 0.03) and remained different from the negative test (p = 0.0004). The method reproducibility was very good, with a coefficient of variation of 1.29%.ConclusionsTherefore, the presented new gas flow method appears to be a simple and robust method to compare different implant systems. It allows successive measures without disconnecting the abutment from the implant and should in particular be used to assess the behavior of the connection before and after mechanical stress.

Gas permeability is quantitative, sensitive, non-destructive and reproducible and seems appropriate for endodontic tests. It would participate in the indirect comprehension of leakage phenomena.

A new strategy to improve silicon‐based endodontic treatment tightness by dentine hydrophobization is presented in this work: root dentine was silanized to obtain a hydrophobic dentine‐sealer interface that limits fluid penetration. This strategy was based on the grafting of aliphatic carbon chains on the dentine through a silanization with the silane end groups [octadecyltrichlorosilane (OTS) and octadecyltriethoxysilane]. Dentine surface was previously pretreated, applying ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid and sodium hypochlorite, to expose hydroxyl groups of collagen for the silane grafting. Collagen fibers exposure after pretreatment was visible with scanning electron microscopy, and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy showed their correct exposition for the silanization (amide I and II, with 1630, 1580, and 1538 cm‐1 peaks corresponding to the vibration of CO and CN bonds). The grafting of aliphatic carbon chains was confirmed by FTIR (peaks at 2952 and 2923 cm‐1 corresponding to the stretching of CH bonds) and by the increasing of the water contact angle. The most efficient hydrophobization was obtained with OTS in ethyl acetate, with a water contact angle turning from 51° to 109°. Gas and liquid permeability tests showed an increased seal tightness after silanization: the mean gas and water flows dropped from 2.02 × 10‐8 to 1.62 × 10−8 mol s‐1 and from 10.8 × 10−3 to 5.4 × 10−3 µL min−1, respectively. These results show clear evidences to turn hydrophilic dentine surface into a hydrophobic surface that may improve endodontic sealing. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater, 2013.