Background and objectives: We aimed to assess the prevalence of periodontal disease among obese young adults in Saudi Arabia and to analyze the association between different body mass indexes and the severity of periodontal disease. Materials and methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study consisted of 307 obese patients aged 18–39 years, with body mass index (BMI) ≥30. Demographic variables for periodontal disease, anthropometric parameters such as BMI along with clinical parameters such as oral hygiene index-simplified, community periodontal index (CPI) score and loss of attachment (LOA), were assessed. Multivariate binary logistic regression analysis was used to identify the predictors for chronic periodontitis in obese young adults between 18–40 years of age. Results: The majority of the participants (71.3%) had periodontal disease. Obese and extremely obese patients together showed a statistically significant difference in the age group of 21-30 years in terms of CPI score for inflammation (p < 0.05) and LOA (p < 0.001). Logistic regression analysis showed age (OR: 3.180; 95%CL: 1.337–7.561; p <.001), occasional dental visit (OR: 5.965; 95%CL: 3.130–11.368; p < 0.001), smoking >10 cigarettes (OR: 11.868; 95%CL: 3.588–39.254; p < 0.001) and poor oral hygiene status (OR: 17.250; 95%CL: 6.958–42.764; p < 0.001) were associated with a significantly higher risk of having periodontal disease. Conclusions: This study showed a high prevalence of periodontal disease in obese patients among the Saudi Arabian population.

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Background: Improving dentist’s knowledge, perceptions and attitudes of dementia is important in the formation of dementia-friendly communities. The aim of the study was to evaluate dentist’s knowledge and attitudes of dementia. The purpose of this study was to examine dentist’s, interns, postgraduate’s knowledge and attitudes towards dementia and to provide basic data for educating about knowledge of dementia and strengthening positive attitudes towards dementia related patients.Methods: One hundred and ten dentists, dental post graduates, interns aged 22-46 years, from dental schools in Tamil Nadu were invited to complete a series of questions that assessed their dementia knowledge and attitudes.Results: A total of 110 dentists completed the questionnaire. Out of 24 questions on dementia knowledge and attitude, participants were on average able to answer less than half correctly. Responses to the attitude’s questionnaire showed that dentists had both positive and negative attitudes toward dementia.Conclusions: There is scope for dentists to improve their dementia knowledge and attitudes. Until a validated measure of dementia knowledge has been developed specifically for an dentist sample, researchers should avoid summary statistics (i.e.; total score) and instead focus on interrogating where the gaps in knowledge.

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