To Örebro University

The aim of this study was to explore the oral health in Swedish individuals with the diagnosis of homozygote cystathionine beta synthase-deficient homocystinuria (HC), a rare disorder of amino acid metabolism affecting connective tissue, in which the phenotypic abnormalities include dislocation of the optic lens, skeletal abnormalities, thromboembolic events, and sometimes mental retardation. Further aims were to evaluate the oral findings against previous oral observations in a medical case report, such as high narrow palate, mandibular prognathia, crowding and early eruption of teeth. Every hospital in Sweden was contacted, with the inquiry of patients with diagnosis of HC, which resulted in 14 individuals participating in oral clinical examination. The oral findings evaluated against previous medical case reports showed to be partly in accordance with previous observations. Dental health showed to be compromised in a majority of cases. Together with the fact that methionine restriction (low-protein diet) is involved in the treatment of the condition and might result in a diet high in sugars,this points out the role of regular dental checkups and preventive oral care for individuals suffering from HC. In addition, short dental roots were a finding not previously reported in the literature. All the studied cases had central maxillary incisors with short roots, when compared to reference values used.

The aim of this study was to explore the association between oral health and obesity. The study was conducted in the spring of 2007 as a postal survey of all inhabitants born in 1942 and living in the two Swedish counties of Orebro and Ostergotland. This questionnaire survey has been conducted every five years since 1992 but has been updated continually with additional questions and for the sweep used here, height and weight data were collected. A total of 8,313 individuals received the questionnaire and 6,078 of those responded (73,1%). The outcome variable oral health was measured using one global question and four detailed questions representing different aspects of oral health. The independent variable Body Mass Index (BMI) was calculated using self-reported height and weight. A difference in oral health between various BMI groups was found. The difference was both statistically significant and of clinical importance, particularly among the group with severe obesity who reported poorer self-perceived chewing capacity, lower satisfaction with dental appearance, increased mouth dryness and fewer teeth and lower overall satisfaction with oral health. In view of the increased risk of poor oral health demonstrated in this study for those with severe obesity, it may be of value to increase cooperation between dental care and primary health care for these patients.

In general, most infectious and/or lifestyle-related diseases are defined as being present when sufficient signs or symptoms occurs in an individual. The term "sufficient" is a relative concept and a disease can therefore be measured with different degrees of certainty. These symptoms are commonly defined in such a way that it is possible to determine the incidence and prevalence of the disease and also the proportion of individuals that are cured from the disease. If dental caries is an individual disease which can be compared to other diseases regarding incidence and prevalence, it is important to determine for how long an individual must be free from new signs of the disease before being considered cured or free from the disease and to define the "sufficient" signs or symptoms needed for a diagnose. Based on these thoughts, the purpose of this study was to calculate caries incidence and prevalence in a group of adolescents from a definition of dental caries based on ICD-10. This study included all 12 year olds in 1990 who attended a clinical dental examination in 1990-1995 in Orebro County, Orebro, Sweden, yearly during these six years. Dental caries disease at the individual level was defined as Ko2.1 (dentinal caries) according to ICD-bo while freedom of caries was defined as the absence of Ko2.1 during a three-year period. In this study the yearly prevalence was 12%, the three year cumulative incidence was 18% and the incidence rate 13%. Results of this study highlight the poor outcomes in curing caries disease in this age-group, according to the criteria in this study, as only 17% of the children with caries at the outset of the study were free from the disease three years later. Defining both a practical level to measure signs of dental caries, and the period an individual must be free from them to be classified as cured from the disease create new opportunities to compare and communicate the disease of dental caries with other diseases. This way of registration is also of advantage for planning purposes as there the centre of interest must be the individual patient and not the tooth or surface.

The aim of this study was to analyze if the same protective factors are significant for both self-rated health and oral health. It was hypothesized that these factors should be the same.

The material is based on a population sample of 17 113 women and men aged 18-84years in one county in central Sweden.The response rate was 61%.The data were collected through a postal questionnaire "Life and Health" in 2008.The questionnaire comprised of 149 questions and was divided into a number of areas, e.g. socioeconomic conditions, quality of life, social relations, lifestyle, and health. To analyze the strength of the protective factors whilst taking into account the relationships between the various independent variables, multivariate analyses were conducted using binary multiple logistic regression. The outcome measures with the strongest association to general health is belonging to the age group 18-34 years, positive faith in the future, good sleeping pattern and to be employed/ self-employed/retired.

The outcomes with the strongest association to oral health are good finances, belonging to the age group 18-34years, to be born in Sweden and positive faith in the future.

Conclusions.This study shows that, in.general, the same protective factors are significant for both self-rated health and self-rated oral health, making it possible to use the same approach to strengthen both general health and oral health. One important outcome, not often considered, is having positive faith in the future. It is a task for the health care system to strengthen people's faith in the future, partly through a very high quality care when needed, but also through active health promotion that increases the chances of a healthy life, both from a public health perspective as from an oral health perspective.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the degree to which patients have perceived that they got questions or advice about eating habits and smoking habits at their last visit at the dental clinic and if this information was differently distributed between different age groups. A further aim was to study whether there were differences in the proportions of questions and advice given to individuals who perceived problems regarding caries and gum bleeding compared to those that did not feel they had problems. The results are based on a postal questionnaire survey,"Life and Health 2008". The study was conducted in a population of women and men aged 18-84 years in 5 counties in Sweden. A total of 68,710 questionnaires were sent out and the response rate was 59.2%. Substantial differences in proportions existed between age groups regarding who received questions and advice related to dental caries and periodontal disease. The differences between age groups regarding information were statistically significant since it was less common that older people got questions and advice than younger.These differences also exist, but less pronounced, between those with disease related problems and those without.Three factors were statistically significantly associated with information. Age, education level and problems with caries or bleeding gums had statistical effect on the prevalence of questions and advice related to eating habits or smoking habits respectively. In conclusion, it is an urgent need of education in methods for dental staff if they want to contribute to changes in life style behaviors for their patients since most patients today don't perceive that they got important disease relevant information at the last dental visit.

The primary purpose of the present study, which focused on a census of 19-year-olds (2006) attending dental clinics in two Swedish counties, was to describe the frequency distribution of clinically- and self-perceived oral health indicators in terms of DSa (Decayed Surfaces approximal), four global dimensions of oral health and one'all-embracing' oral health measure, according to county of residence and gender. A second purpose was to examine to what extent the clinical indicator of oral health and the global dimensions of self-perceived oral health contribute to the explainable variance of the global single-item indicator. Finally, the study examined whether or not the association of clinically- and self-perceived oral health indicators with the single global oral health indicator varied as a function of gender and place of residence. The study base was 46.5% (n=3658) of all children attending for dental checks (n=7866). The questionnaire included thirteen questions, divided into four global dimensions. These were Knowledge, Quality of life, Social and Function. There was also one 'all-embracing' oral health question, one question about gender and finally information about clinically-registered disease. The findings of this study were that females reported more serious problems than males in the Social and Quality of life dimensions and there were differences between counties in knowledge about oral diseases. The group with poor self-reported oral health in the 'all-embracing' oral health question had significantly more problems with all global dimensions, especially Quality of life and Social dimensions. Statistically-significant two-way interactions occurred between county and Knowledge and between county and Quality of life. This study supports the idea of one or several questions concerning self-perceived oral health to be used as a complement to the traditional epidemiological clinical registration of oral diseases.

The aim of this study was to explore dental fear in a multicultural population of child and adolescent dental patients, with background, gender, age, and socioeconomic status taken into account. A specific aim was to investigate whether the level of DF differed between patients with a non- Swedish background and patients with a Swedish background.

In conjunction with a routine visit to the dental clinic, 301 patients (8-19 years old) assessed their dental fear on the Children's Fear Survey Schedule - Dental Subscale, using self-ratings. Following an interview protocol, patients' and their parents' country of birth, and parents' education and occupation/employment were registered. An interpreter was present when needed.

Self-rated dental fear was almost equal among patients coming from a non-Swedish background and patients with a Swedish background. Girls scored higher than boys and younger children scored slightly higher compared to older children, but the pattern of dental fear variation was inconsistent. Socioeconomic status differed between the groups with a non- Swedish vs. a Swedish background, but no impact on dental fear was revealed. When children and adolescents with a non-Swedish vs. a Swedish background were modelled separately, female gender and younger age had an impact on dental fear only in the group with a Swedish background.

No differences in dental fear were found between children and adolescents from non-Swedish vs. Swedish backgrounds. Dental fear variations according to gender and age were more pronounced in the group with a Swedish background compared to the group with a non-Swedish background. No impact of socioeconomic status could be revealed.

The aim of the present study was to examine the periodontal conditions in an age cohort of 70-year-old women and compare an osteoporosis group with a control group with normal bone mineral density. 210 women 70 years old and randomly sampled from the population register of the community of Linköping were examined. Bone mineral density (BMD) of the hip was measured by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. 19 women were diagnosed with osteoporosis (BMD below 0.640 g/cm2 in total hip). 15 of them accepted to participate in the study. As a control group 21 women with normal bone mineral density (BMD exceeding 0.881 g/cm2) were randomly selected from the initial population. The clinical examination included registration of the number of remaining teeth, dental plaque and periodontal conditions. The radiographic examination included a dental panorama and vertical bite-wing radiographs. The subjects also answered a questionnaire about their general health, age at menopause, concurrent medication, smoking and oral hygiene habits. The results from this study showed no statistically significant differences in gingival bleeding, probing pocket depths, gingival recession and marginal bone level between the women with osteoporosis and the women with normal bone mineral density. In conclusion, the present randomly selected and controlled study of osteoporotic and non-osteoporotic women, showed no statistically significant differences in periodontal conditions or marginal bone level. As periodontitis as well as osteoporosis are associated with age, our study of a well-defined age cohort is of interest, but the results should be interpreted with caution since the compared groups are small.

This study evaluates and compares the effects of enamel prophylaxis using either oil-free pumice or oil-containing prophylaxis paste on the incidence of bracket failure in orthodontic patients.

Forty-six orthodontic patients participated in this prospective clinical trial. A cross-mouth method was used in each patient, in which two diagonal quadrants (i.e. upper right and lower left or vice versa) were randomly assigned to the pumice group and the contralateral diagonal quadrants to the Prophy Paste (R) group. A total of 836 teeth were bonded using Transbond XT (3M Unitek) and monitored for an average of 23 months for bond failure. Chi-square analysis was used to compare the number of bracket failures between the groups.

Overall, 26 bond failures occurred by the end of the trial. Fifteen bracket failures were observed in the Prophy Paste group (3.6%) and 11 in the pumice group (2.6%). The failure rates were fairly evenly distributed between the upper and lower jaws. There were no statistically significant differences between the groups (P = 0.43).

This study showed that enamel prophylaxis using either pumice or Prophy Paste before orthodontic bonding works equally well in a clinical setting.

The aim of this epidemiological study performed in 2013 was to analyze various clinical and radiographic data on oral health and compare the results to those of four cross-sectional studies carried out 1973-2003. In 1973,1983,1993,2003, and 2013 random samples of 1,000;1,104;1,078; 987; and 1,010 individuals, respectively, were studied. The individuals were evenly distributed in the age groups 3,5,10,15, 20,30,40,50, 60,70, and 8o years. Eighty-year-olds were not included in 1973. All subjects were inhabitants of the city of Jonkoping, Sweden.

The clinical and radiographic examination assessed edentulousness, removable dentures, implants, number of teeth, caries, restorations, oral hygiene, calculus, periodontal status, and endodontic treatment.

The frequency of edentulous individuals aged 40-70 years was 16,12, 8,1, and 0.3% in 1973,1983,1993, 2003, and 2013, respectively. No complete denture wearer younger than 80-years old was found in 2013. During the 40-year period, the mean number of teeth in the age groups 30-80 years increased. In 2013, the 60-year-olds had nearly complete dentitions. Implants were found in all age groups from 30 years of age. The total number of individuals with implants was 36 in 2013.This was higher than earlier surveys,4 in 1993, and 18 in 2003.

The percentage of children and adults without caries and restorations increased during the 40-year period. It was found that the percentage of caries-free 3- and 5-year-olds were 79% and 69%, respectively, of the individuals in 2013. In the age groups 10-20 years, the percentage of caries-free individuals increased between 2003 and 2013. In 2013,43% of the 15-year-olds were completely free from caries and restorations compared to 20% in 2003. In all age groups 5-60 years, DFS was lower in 2013 compared to the earlier examinations. There was no major change in DFS between 2003 and 2013 in the age groups 70 and 80 years. The most obvious change was the decrease in number of FS over the 40 year period of time. Regarding crowned teeth the most clear changes between 1973 to 2013 were the decrease in percentage of crowned teeth in the age goups 4o and 50-year-olds. The percentage of endodontically treated teeth decreased between 1973 and 2013 in all age groups.

In age groups-Jo-30-year-olds a major reduction from about 3o% to 15% in mean plaque score was seen between 1973-2003. Only a minor change in plaque score was seen during the last decade. For the age groups 40 years and older, a decrease in the percentage of surfaces with plaque was observed between 2003-2o13.The percentage of tooth sites with gingivitis was for zo years and older about 4o% in 1973. In 2013, the percentage was about15%. The frequency of sites with gingivitis was generally lower in 2013 compared with the other years:1973-1993.

The percentage of individuals with probing pocket depths >4mm increased with age. Between 2003-2013 a clear reduction was seen in all age groups in frequency of individuals with probing pocket depth >4mm. Over the 40-year period an increase in the number of individuals with no marginal bone loss and a decrease in the number of subjects with moderate alveolar bone loss were seen.

The continuous improvement in oral health and the reduced need of restorative treatment will seriously affect the provision of dental helath care and dental delivery system in the near future.

Associations between signs and symptoms from the masticatory system and tinnitus have been reported. The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of intraoral splint therapy and acupuncture on jaw-muscle tenderness and tinnitus. The study comprised 45 patients (24 men, 21 women; mean age 48 12 years) with long-standing tinnitus (duration 6.5 +/- 5.9 years).The patients were referred from the audiology department at the University hospital in Orebro, Sweden, where a complete audiological survey was performed. Jaw muscles were palpated and the subjective tinnitus evaluated on a loo mm scale (VAS) at baseline and after one year. All patients received stabilization (Michigan type) splints at start of treatment. After 6 months, nonresponders (n=25) were subjected to acupuncture (6 sessions with duration of 30 minutes). Standard statistical methods were used. All patients had tender jaw muscles at palpation. Patients reported a significant decrease of the intensity of tinnitus during the observation period (from 78 +/- 20 mm to 52 +/- 24 mm after one year; P < 0.001). Only 6 (13 %) of the 45 patients did not report any improvement of their tinnitus. The number of jaw muscles tender to palpation also decreased significantly from 7.9 +/- 5.9 to 4.6 +/- 5.3; (P < 0.001). In conclusion, all 45 patients with tinnitus had tender jaw muscles. Intraoral splint therapy and acupuncture had a favorable effect on tinnitus and the jaw muscle symptoms. One year after the start of treatment, all but 6 of the 45 patients reported improvement of their tinnitus. Based on the results it is suggested that many tinnitus patients with jaw muscle tenderness can benefit by a treatment including intraoral splint and acupuncture.

Dental materials are perceived as a health problem by some people, although scientists do not agree about possible causes of such problems. The aim of this paper was to gain a deeper knowledge and understanding of experiences from living with health problems attributed to dental materials. Addressed topics were the type of problem, both as to general and oral health, perceived causes of the problems, their experienced effect on life, and reception by health professionals. Persons, who in a previous large questionnaire study had answered that they had experienced troubles from dental materials and also agreed to answer follow-up questions, were contacted with a request to take part in an interview study. Eleven individual interviews were held. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and the material was analysed according to the Qualitative Content Analysis method. Meaning units were extracted and condensed into a number of codes, which were combined into subcategories, categories, and themes. Four themes were identified: 1) Long-term oral, mental, and somatic difficulties of varying character, caused by dental amalgam. 2) Problems treated mainly by replacement of dental material in fillings. 3) Powerful effects on life, mostly negative. 4) The reception by health professionals was generally good, but with elements of encounters where they felt treated with nonchalance and lack of respect. In conclusion, people who attributed their health difficulties to dental materials had a complex range of problems and the perception was that amalgam/mercury was the cause of the troubles. The reception from health professionals was perceived as generally good, although with occasional negative experiences.

The aim of this study was to investigate self-perceived oral health in two elderly populations, age's 65 and 75 years, and its relation to background factors, socioeconomic, individual, and dental health service system factors. Another purpose was to investigate if there were any differences in these respects, between the two age groups, born in 1932 or 1942.

In two counties in Sweden, Orebro and Ostergötland, all persons born in 1942 have been surveyed by mail every fifth year since 1992. In the year 2007 all persons born in 1932 were also surveyed using the same questionnaire. Those born in 1932 consisted of 3735 persons and those born in 1942 6078 persons. From an outline of a general model of inequalities in oral health data were analyzed with descriptive statistics and contingency tables with chi2 analysis. Multivariable analysis was performed by using multiple regression analysis.

Factors related to self-perceived oral health were age group, social network, ethnicity, education, general health,tobacco habits, oral hygiene routines, dental visit habits and cost for care.

The self-perceived oral health was overall rather high, especially in view of the studied ages, although it was worse for those of age 75. Socio-economic factors, dental health service system as well as individual lifestyle factors affected self-perceived oral health. To have a satisfying dental appearance, in the aspect of howyou are judged by other people, was important for these age groups. This presents a challenge for dental health planners especially since the proportion of older age groups are growing.

Turner syndrome (TS) is a genetic disorder of females with a prevalence of 1/2000-3000 live female births. The aim of this study was to compare cephalometric variables from adult women diagnosed with TS to a standardized reference group of 31-year old healthy women, and to evaluate the possible effects of human growth hormone (hGH) therapy in women with TS. Registered TS subjects in the Southeast region of Sweden were invited to take part in the study. Twenty-one women aged 36 ± 13(18-57) years accepted participation. Lateral radiographs of the head were analyzed using standard cephalometric methods (Hasund analysis) and with the commercially available soft-ware program FACAD. Comparisons were made with roentgen-cephalometric standards from a reference group of nineteen 31-year old Swedish women. Analysis of the cephalometric radiographs from the TS subjects showed a more retrognathic maxilla (SNA 80.3 ± 5.4) (p = 0.0460) and mandible (SNB 77.0 ± 5.2) (p = 0.0014), and a correspondingly backward position of the chin (SN/Pg 78.9 ± 5.5) (p = 0.0046) as compared to the reference values of 31-year old women (SNA 83.2 ± 3.0, SN B 81.5 ± 2.3 and SNPg 83.0 ± 2.3, respectively). In addition there was an increased posterior inclination of the maxilla (SN/NL 8.6 ± 4.1), as compared to the reference values (SN/NL 5.3 ± 2.7) (p = 0.0048). There were no significant differences regarding sagittal or vertical jaw relations, mandibular inclination or cranial base angle between the TS-group and the 31-year olds with the reference values. No significant difference was seen in jaw relationship, as measured by the ANB value, however the Wits(index) (3.3 ± 3.5) was higher (p = 0.0001) than the reference values (-0.1 ± 1.8). Subjects with or without previous hGH administration did,not show any significant differences in cephalometric values. In conclusion, women with TS had a significantly more retrognathic maxilla (SNA) and mandible (SNB) and a correspondingly significantly posterior position of the chin (SN/Pg), a significantly increased posterior inclination of the maxilla (SN/NL) and a significantly increased Wits(index) as compared to the reference group of 31-year old women. No craniofacial variables differed significantly between previously hGH-treated and not hGH-treated women with TS.