Pediatric Dentists' and Guardians' Perceptions of Follow-Up Appointments After Dental Rehabilitation Under General Anesthesia

Purpose: It has been suggested that follow-up visits for pediatric patients after full-mouth dental rehabilitation (FMDR) under general anesthesia (GA) are important to evaluate healing and restorative treatment, review oral hygiene instruction, provide nutritional counseling and address guardians' concerns. The purpose of this study was to evaluate pediatric dentists' current utilization of follow-up visits after GA and to evaluate pediatric dentists' and guardians' perceptions of their purpose and value. Methods: Three separate surveys were administered: (1) pediatric dentist survey, (2) guardian pre-appointment survey and (3) guardian post-appointment survey. The guardian surveys examined their perceptions of a follow-up visit before and after FMDR under GA. The pediatric dentist survey examined current utilization and perception of follow-up appointments. Results: Most clinicians (72 percent) reported scheduling a follow-up visit. Providers generally agreed that the post-operative appointments were important (69 percent). Of the guardians who attended the follow-up visit, 96.3 percent agreed that the post- operative visit was useful. Conclusion: Both pediatric dentists and guardians of patients undergoing FMDR under GA agreed that a follow-up visit after GA was valuable despite low complication rates.

Tracking dental patient tobacco use and intervention in the academic clinical setting

The purpose of this study was to illustrate one method of tracking patients' tobacco use and monitoring cessation interventions with electronic dental records in an academic dental setting. Records from 465 tobacco users were analyzed to assess patients' tobacco use and providers' intervention techniques. The results indicate that 75 percent of the patients whose records were analyzed had used tobacco for more than ten years and the cold turkey approach was the most common cessation method. Ninety-seven percent of the patients whose records were analyzed used cigarettes. The most common pharmacotherapy recommended in combination with counseling for smoking cessation was the nicotine patch, followed by nicotine gum, varenicline (Chantix), the nicotine lozenge, bupropion SR (Zyban), and the nicotine oral inhaler. Incorporating tobacco use questions into the electronic dental record can ensure that tobacco use and intervention techniques are addressed and documented in dental records. Electronic dental records provide an opportunity to collect data related to tobacco use and intervention techniques for purposes of further evaluation and research.

Acquired aortic stenosis in systemic lupus erythematosus

Two patients with systemic lupus erythematosus had aortic valvular stenosis resulting from massive thrombotic deposits on the valve. This condition has not been described previously, but a similar process has been reported to have caused mitral stenosis in a patient.