Recently, sanitary and educational work for the prevention of dental diseases in children is widely implemented, but the problem of awareness and oral hygiene in young and middle-aged people remains quite relevant. Nowadays, the range of dental items and hygiene products is quite wide, so a person who does not receive the recommendations of a dentist is quite difficult to understand what and why it should be used. Therefore, the aim of the study was to study the preventive knowledge of ordinary passers-by of young and middle age and their awareness of additional subjects and hygiene products. Object and methods of research. To achieve this goal, 100 passers-by in the center of Poltava were interviewed. According to the age classification of the World Health Organization: the young age is from 25 to 44, middle age is 44-60, elderly age is 60-75, senile age is 75-90 and long-livers are after 90. Two age groups were selected for the results: young and middle-aged, as these groups are the most common. Age was determined by survey. 50 people aged 25-44 years and 50 people aged 44-60 years were elected. The gender was not taken into account when choosing a contingent. Passers-by were asked 5 simple questions that characterized both the preventive habits of the respondents and knowledge about hygiene items and products. Research results and their discussion. Analyzing the answers to the questions, we found that young people (25-44 years) are more aware of the rules of oral care than middle-aged respondents (44-60 years). Answering the first question - "How often do you visit the dentist?" respondents answered as follows: only 5 young people visit the dentist as needed, while among middle-aged people this number is seven times higher. When answering the second question - "Do you pay attention to the composition of toothpaste when choosing?" respondents answered as follows: 42% of young people always pay attention to the composition, twice as many people - buy what the dentist advises, and the rest respondents were not interested in the components of the paste. The results of the second group were significantly worse. The third issue concerned the frequency of toothbrush changes, which is very important for the quality of oral hygiene and cleaning efficiency. The results of the survey showed that people from the older age group of the study are less aware of this issue. The answers to the fourth and fifth questions also showed a lower level of knowledge in middle-aged people. Thus, after analyzing the answers of the respondents, it is clear that people of the younger age group (25-44 years) are more aware of oral hygiene and prevention of dental diseases. In our opinion, this situation is associated with the introduction of health education at different levels, available information on the Internet and various social platforms, more responsible attitude to their health and awareness of preventive measures. It is necessary to pay attention to the education of middle-aged people regarding oral hygiene, as it is an integral part of the prevention of dental diseases.
Viral diseases with oral manifestations are common in the practice of pedodontist, however, sometimes their diagnosis is complicated due to the similar clinical manifestations. A huge number of viruses are present in oral cavity, especially from Herpesviridae family, however, the most of them are asymptomatic. Cold, systemic diseases and stress provoke the activation of viruses with different clinical manifestations. Therefore, a dentist can be the first who diagnoses not only herpetic gingivostomatitis, but also other viral diseases. The aim of the article was to analyse the oral manifestations of viral diseases in children in order to optimize their diagnostics. This article analyses clinical cases and reviews of diseases in English in Google database from 2011 to May 2020 (and earlier publications) by Keywords: «herpetic gingivostomatitis», «recurrent aphthous stomatitis», «oral manifestations of infectious mononucleosis», «herpetic angina», «oral manifestations of cytomegalovirus infection», «recurrent herpetic gingivostomatitis», «oral manifestations of varicella virus», «oral manifestations of herpes zoster», «roseola infantum», «herpangina», «hand, foot and mouth disease», «oral manifestations of measles», «rubella», «oral manifestations of papillomavirus», and «oral manifestations of human immunodeficiency virus». Viruses which have oral manifestations were characterized by transmission. Mostly airborne viruses are represented by Herpesviridae family. The differential diagnosis of primary herpetic gingivostomatitis includes recurrent aphthous stomatitis which forms ulcers on non-keratinised oral mucosa without a vesicle phase. Recurrent herpetic infection doesn’t have difficulties in diagnostics, but could be complicated by erythema multiform with clear target lesions. Vesicles, erosions in oral cavity associated with vesicles on hear part of head help to distinguish chickenpox from herpetic infection. Compared to Herpes simplex virus infection, Herpes zoster has a longer duration, a more severe prodromal phase, unilateral vesicles and ulceration, with abrupt ending at the midline and postherpetic neuralgia. Roseola is characterized by small papules on skin and palate which appears when severe fever in prodromal period subsides and disappears after 1-2 days. Oral vesicles associated with foot and hand rush differentiate enterovirus stomatitis from chickenpox and roseola. The distribution of the lesions of herpangina (palate, tonsils) differentiates it from primary herpetic gingivostomatitis, which affects the gingivae. Comparing with roseola and rubella, measles has a bigger size of rush and specific oral localization on buccal mucosa. Mild fever and skin rush which appears on face and extensor surfaces of body and extremities help to distinguish rubella from measles and roseola. Viruses transmitted through biological liquids are represented in oral cavity by infectious mononucleosis and cytomegalovirus. The vesicles and ulcers on the tonsils and posterior pharynx in case of these infections can resemble herpetic stomatitis, but liver and spleen enlargement allows to exclude this diagnose; also cytomegalovirus erosions heal for long time. Cervical lymphoadenopathy differentiates them from herpetic angina. Laboratory diagnostics is based on detection of antibodies to virus or virus DNA in blood helps to make diagnosis of infectious mononucleosis and cytomegalovirus infections. Viruses transmitted through direct contact with mucosa and biological liquids represented by human papillomavirus (HPV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). HPV in oral cavity represent by benign epithelial hyperplasia which might persist and transform to malignant. Therefore, histological examination plays important role in diagnostics of HPV. Oral manifestations such as candidiasis, herpes labialis, and aphthous stomatitis represent some of the first signs of HIV immunodeficiency. Oral lesions also associated with HIV in children are oral hairy leukoplakia, linear gingival erythema, necrotizing ulcerative gingivitis, and Kaposi’s sarcoma. Rapid necrotization and long-term healing of oral lesions help to suspect HIV and prescribe the blood test for the detection of antibodies to the virus. Oral mucosa is often the first to be affected by viral infections. A thorough anamnesis and examination is the key to accurate diagnostics of the most oral viral lesions and their adequate treatment. Biopsy, examination of antibodies to the virus in the blood or polymeraze-chain reaction to the virus in the bioptate or blood are performed in case of diagnostic difficulties. Laboratory methods had to use more widely for the diagnostics of recurrent or unclear lesions of the oral mucosa in children.
WHO estimates health as complete physical, mental and social well-being. Clinical indicators of oral diseases are not entirely suitable to capture this concept of health. Standardized questionnaires have been developed to evaluate the physical, psychological, and social impact of oral conditions on an individual. Oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) identifies the impact of oral health on aspects of everyday life in terms of a person’s functional, social, and psychological well-being. The oral health impact profile (OHIP) is widely used to measure OHRQoL in adults, its short version includes 14 items (OHIP-14). The aim was to investigate how self-reported and clinically-assessed parameters of oral health are related to OHRQoL measured by OHIP-14 in dental students of UMSA. 101 third- and fourth-year dental students aged 19–26 years attending UMSA in Poltava, Ukraine, took a questionnaire in Ukrainian. The first part of the questionnaire includes information on age, sex, self-assessed oral health, self-assessed dental aesthetic, satisfaction with mouth and teeth, and oral health behaviour. Questions on oral health behaviour included regularity of dental visits and frequency of tooth brushing. All these items were categorized into different groups. The question on dental aesthetic had the response option “difficult to answer”. When that response was chosen (n = 2 questionnaires), this data was considered missing and the students were excluded from the analysis. The second part of the questionnaire included the OHIP-14 to measure OHRQoL. There were seven dimensions of negative impact on OHRQoL: functional limitation, physical pain, psychological discomfort, physical disability, psychological disability, social disability, and handicap. There were two items for each dimension, which added up to a total of 14 items. Participants rated the frequency with which they experienced each of these items in the last 12 months using a 5-point Likert scale (“never” = 0, “hardly ever” = 1, “occasionally” = 2, “fairly often” = 3, and “very often” = 4). In addition, each item had the response option “I do not know”. When a student missed one answer or chose the option “I do not know” (for at least one item), the data was considered missing, and the student was excluded from the analysis (n=2). A clinical dental examination was performed. All permanent teeth were taken into consideration to measure dental caries experience using the DMF index. The Green-Vermillion index was applied for oral hygiene estimation. To assess the extent of gingivitis, the PMA index was used. The chi-square test was applied to compare the percentage of students with low and high OHRQoL between categories of self-reported oral health characteristics, and oral health behaviour. When comparing data on clinically-assessed oral health (the DMF, Green-Vermillion, and PMA indices), the Mann–Whitney U test was used for the two independent groups (with low and high OHRQoL). p-values<0.05 were considered as statistically significant. A total of 97 students were included in the statistical analysis, 43 of which were males and 54 were females. The highest mean scores in OHIP-14 were observed for the dimensions of physical pain (39,17%). Students with poor self-assessed oral health, poor self-assessed dental aesthetic, and who reported dissatisfaction with mouth and teeth more frequently fell into the group with low OHRQoL (p<0,05). The mean DMF was 5,41, Green-Vermillion hygienic index was 0,54, and РМА – 4,48%. However, a higher DMF index score, high Green-Vermillion index, and high PMA in students were not associated with low OHRQoL (р>0,5). In this study, the self-reported assessment of oral health affects the dental students' quality of life, while the clinical characteristics do not. Physical pain was the most frequently reported OHIP-14 dimension with an impact on OHRQoL. Poor self-assessed dental aesthetic and dissatisfaction with mouth and teeth were the strongest factors associated with low OHRQoL. The line of research pertaining to other parameters of oral health in youth that impact dental aesthetic and oral health, and thus oral health-related quality of life, is considered promising.