Aim of the study Traumatic dental injuries including avulsed tooth is a tragic and ignored problem among school children. As children spend much of their time in schools, school teachers form the group who commonly supervise the physical activity of the children, so awareness about avulsed tooth emergency management among school teachers is an important concept for long-term success and to prevent its future consequences. The purpose of this study was to assess the knowledge and attitude regarding tooth avulsion and dental first aid among primary school teachers in Davangere city.MethodsThe study was performed by administering a self-designed questionnaire on a sample of 300 primary school teachers.ResultsSixty-eight percent of the school teachers (government, semi-aided and aided schools) admitted the possibility of an avulsed tooth to be replanted and thirty-two percent had no idea on tooth replantation and only twenty-three percent of the teachers knew the procedures taken in cases of avulsed teeth. Seventy-seven percent of all teachers did not feel the possibility of tooth replantation.ConclusionThere is poor knowledge in the management of avulsed teeth among the school teachers of Davangere city. They do not feel capable of replanting an avulsed tooth. As one of the child supervisors, all the school teachers should have the basic knowledge to recognize oral emergencies and regarding conservation of avulsed teeth to prevent its consequences in the child’s future.

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Background Interpersonal Communication Skills (IPCS) are one of the core clinical skills that should be developed by the Public Health Midwives (PHMs), who are grass-root level public healthcare providers in primary healthcare settings in Sri Lanka. This study aimed to develop and validate the Interpersonal Communication Assessment Tool (IPCAT), an observational rating scale, to assess the IPCS of PHMs. Methods Item generation, item reduction, instrument drafting, and development of the tool’s rating guide were made by an expert panel. A cross-sectional study was conducted in five randomly selected Medical Officer of Health (MOH) areas, the smallest public health administrative division in the district of Colombo, Sri Lanka, to identify the factor structure, which is the correlational relationship between a number of variables in the tool. A sample of 164 PHMs was recruited. The data on IPCS were collected by video-recording the provider-client interaction using simulated clients. All recorded videos were rated by a rater using the drafted IPCAT, which included a Likert scale of 1(poor) to 5 (excellent). Exploratory factor analysis was conducted using the Principal Axis Factoring extraction method and the Varimax rotation technique to explore the factors. Three independent raters were used to rate ten randomly selected videos to assess the tool’s internal consistency and inter-rater reliability. Results The IPCAT obtained a five-factor model with 22 items, and all five factors explained 65% of the total variance. The resulting factors were “Engaging” (six items on making rapport), “Delivering” (four items on paying respect), “Questioning” (four items on asking questions), “Responding” (four items on empathy), and “Ending” (four items to assess the skills of ending a conversation productively). The internal consistency, Cronbach’s Alpha value, for all five factors was above 0.8, and the inter-rater reliability (ICC) was excellent (0.95). Conclusions The Interpersonal Communication Assessment Tool is a valid and reliable tool for assessing the interpersonal communication skills of Public Health Midwives. Trial registration Clinical Trial Registry, Sri Lanka. Ref No, SLCTR/2020/006(February 4th,2020)

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Aim of the study was to find the association of age, gender and teeth distribution in patients undergoing root canal treatment in maxillary anteriors. This study was conducted at a private dental institute between June 2019 to March 2020. 86000 patient records were analysed. A total of 988 patients who underwent root canal treatment in 1753 maxillary anteriors were evaluated. Data collection was done and the results were tabulated in excel sheet. Obtained results were statistically analysed with SPSS software. From the results it was observed that, Maximum number of maxillary anterior root canal treatments was done in the age group of below 30 years (51%) and the least being patients above 60 years (6%). Male patients (52.94%) and female patients (47.06%) had undergone root canal treatment for maxillary anteriors. Maximum number of root canal treatment was done in 11 (23.5%) and the least was 13 (10.33%).Association between age of the patients and number of patients undergoing root canal treatment in maxillary anteriors, revealed that most of the root canal treatment was done in the age group of below 30 years, teeth commonly involved was 11 and the least was patients above 60 years in 21 (0.91%)(p <0.05) hence statistically significant. Association between gender of the patient and number of patients undergoing root canal treatment in maxillary anteriors revealed that most of the root canal treatment was done in male patients pertaining to tooth number 21(13.94%) and the least being 23 in male patients (4.16%) (p<0.05) hence statistically significant.