Prevalence of dental caries and dental care utilisation in preschool urban children enrolled in a comparative-effectiveness study.
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AIM: To assess dental caries prevalence and dental care utilisation in pre-school children enrolled in urban childcare centres that participated in a comparative effectiveness study. STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. METHODS: Caries prevalence was determined in a cohort of children 12-60 months of age. Eligible children were randomised into two groups: group one received a traditional visual/tactile oral examination and group two received a teledentistry examination. Questionnaires were administered to the children's parents/guardians to gather demographics and information about using dental and medical services. RESULTS: Of 234 children examined, approximately 28% had caries experience. The mean dfs score was 1.56 with a range of 0-34 carious surfaces. The mean dfs score for the children examined by means of teledentistry was 1.75 and for the children examined by means of the traditional visual/tactile method mean dfs was 1.40; the means between the two groups were not significantly different. Twenty-six children showed evidence of being treated for dental caries. According to the parents, 31.5% of the children had never had a dental check-up before, only 3% of the children were lacking dental insurance and majority of the parents (92%) did not perceive accessing dental care for the children as a problem. STATISTICS: The Wilcoxon Mann-Whitney test and the Kruskal-Wallis test were used to assess statistical differences among groups of children. CONCLUSIONS: The data showed that 28% of the children had caries and, of these, 61% had never been treated for caries, thus indicating that continued efforts are needed to improve oral health care utilisation by inner-city preschool children. (+info)
Enhancing pseudo-telepathy in the magic square game.
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The article that begins below is the fifth in a series of personal accounts to be published in the Schizophrenia Bulletin. In describing his account, the author commented: "The viewpoint is solely my consciousness. The substance of every statement and the specific words in many statements actually occurred to me. Third person narrative was chosen to convey a sense of my psychological distance from the experience. This distance was essential for accomplishing growth. I have described my emotions and thoughts as exactly as possible, and in sufficient detail for the reader to follow the sequence of change in thought from and content. In spite of certain passages in the text, I had never previously felt fervently about any religion, religious figure, or telepathy, and I had never felt harassed by the Central Intelligence Agency. The experience described followed many extreme stresses--death of a parent, end of a longtime romantic relationship, and a career change. Before these events, my emotional and social adjustment had been good...." Brief comments by two clinicans who saw the author during different phases of the experience described are appended to his account. (+info)