Background: Oral health is fundamental to general health and well-being. Sources of oral health information for adults have been examined but documentation of children's sources is limited. Aim: The aim of the following study is to investigate the dental health attitudes, knowledge and practice of school children in Chennai using a questionnaire. Materials and Methods: The subjects for this study were randomly selected from five private and five government schools in the age group of 10-16 years. A total of 592 children were screened, of which 219 were males and 373 were females. Results: Overall the level of knowledge score was statistically significant with P = 0.004. There was statistically significant difference with P = 0.008 when comparing the frequency of brushing the teeth twice per day among the two different age groups. Comparing the various other factors such as gender, type of school and age groups to the visit to the dentist, it was observed that statistically significant difference with P < 0.001) was found when comparing the female children (75.3%) and male children (60.3%) and P = 0.002 observed when comparing the younger and older age group who visited the dentist. Conclusion: The overall level of oral health knowledge among the surveyed children was low.

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A literature search was conducted in MEDLINE (PubMed) and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials and Indian government website were conducted. In addition, reference lists of selected papers were hand searched for further relevant articles. The search was limited to articles and books in English. Different combinations of relevant keywords were used to identify articles. Child abuse is a condition that is often less identified. Abused child is deprived of its right, hence protecting children from maltreatment and neglect is part of the obligation of all health professionals. Dental professionals are in an exceptional position to identify and respond to these conditions. Therefore to create a child friendly community, it is prerequisite to transform not only the culture in which children are residing but also approaches and behavior toward them.

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Background: The practice of self-medication may lead to lack of clinical evaluation by a trained medical professional and delay in effective therapy. It is known that even the students of health-care sciences indulge in it. The present study is aimed at assessing the attitude and behavior of dental students toward self-medication. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire based study was conducted in a private dental teaching hospital in South India. The undergraduate dental students from first year to final year who gave consent were included in the study. Information regarding the reason for self-medication, condition for which they self-medicated, type of drugs used, awareness about the drugs used and their source of information was collected. Data was summarized as the number and percentage. Chi-square test was used to test the significance and P < 0.05 was considered to be significant. Results: The prevalence of self-medication is 62.5%. Headache and mouth ulcers were the most common indications of self-medication. The most commonly used drugs were analgesics, antibiotics and antipyretics. Conclusion: The findings of this study reveal that the majority of the students self-medicate. As these students are future dental practitioners, self-medication as a regular practice by them should be curbed as their behavior may indirectly influence their patient's health.

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Background: The field of dentistry has developed rapidly over the past century based on the Hippocratic principles. Research in dentistry is aimed at investigating the causes and treatment of dental disease and is based on the same ethical standards that govern the field of medicine. Very little research has investigated the attitudes of dental professionals toward the concepts of research ethics and the acceptability of research ethics committees, accordingly a cross sectional study was designed in our institution. Aims and Objectives: The objectives of our study were to assess the knowledge awareness and attitudes of dental faculty regarding research ethics committees and research ethics. Materials and methods: A cross sectional survey was carried out in our institution with the consent of the ethical committee. The study was designed in a questionnaire form which was used to assess attitudes, awareness of dental professional regarding research ethics committee and knowledge in practices of research ethics. A total of 115 proformas were distributed and 100 completely filled proformas were analysed. Results: The dental faculty is favourable towards research ethics training and role of research ethics committee in conducting quality dental research. About greater than half of the participants (51%) had a prior experience in research involving human subjects. Among people involved in prior research about 49% participants have conducted < OR = 3 projects, while 2-3% of the people were involved in > 3 research projects. The attitudes towards practices in research ethics showed that greater than 90% (94-98%) of the patients responded positively. The results from the survey recommends the institutional authorities about the need for training in research ethics with special emphasis on vulnerable participants, aspects related to responsible conduct of research and the roles and functions of research ethics committees. Conclusion: Adequate knowledge of the dental professionals regarding research ethics and their attitudes towards practices of ethical principles and ethical committees will favour quality research and provide a caring society.

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Background: Informed Consent is a fundamental prerequisite to undertaking ethical research. There are series of complexities associated with the administration of Informed Consent form in developing countries. This study aimed to identify the views of dental patients and dental professionals in Jos, Nigeria toward the need for Informed Consent prior participation in dental clinical research. Materials and Methods: A self-administered questionnaire based cross sectional study. It sought to know participants' views about Informed Consent process and prior involvement in clinical research. Non-probability, purposive sampling technique was used to select the study population. Analysis was done by the use of SPSS 17. Results: A total of 152 participants answered the survey questionnaires; 121 patients and 31 Dental professionals. Age range was 18-70 years, M: 51%, F: 49%. 27 (17.8%) participants had been involved in clinical research before. Comparatively, dental patients have more understanding of the term ''Informed Consent'' (P > 0.05). Both patients (93.5%) and dental professionals (89.3%) agree strongly that Informed Consent is important to clinical research though ironically, nearly half (48.7%) of the participants do not have any idea of what Informed Consent entails. Also, 84.2% of the respondents think they should be asked of their consent before conducting a clinical research wherein they are the subjects. Conclusions: Though both the dental patients and professionals agree that Informed Consent is important to clinical research and that they should be asked of their consent before participation in clinical research, ignorance of what it actually entails is apparent among these groups.

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Background: Oral cancer mainly affects individuals in the 6 ^th and 7 ^th decades of life with a history of risk factors like, smoking, tobacco chewing and alcohol consump­tion. Early recognition and referral is essential for higher cure rates and better quality of life. Nursing staff provides the oral health care for patients in hospital. Admission to hospital provides a ''window of opportunity'' for oral cancer screening via an oral health checkup during nursing care. Objective: To measure awareness of risk factors, clinical signs and screening service for oral cancer among nursing students. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted in two Nursing Colleges of Davangere city. The questionnaire consisted of 17 closed ended questions. The questionnaire was pre-tested and validated before administering. Results: Among 300 nursing students, 231 were females and 69 were males. Over 90% thought oral health checkups were important although only 69% performed oral examination regularly; approximately 90% identified smoking and use of tobacco products as a risk factor but very few identified other associated factors like alcohol. Only 55% of the respondents were aware about the most common site of occurrence of oral cancer. Only 49% recognized a non healing ulcer as a sign of oral cancer. Over 90% of the students felt that a nursing student needs more education about screening for oral cancer and were willing to participate in a network to promote early screening for oral cancer. Conclusion: This study revealed that nurses' awareness of oral cancer risk factors and clinical signs, in the group under study was, however, poor. This study highlights a need for improved education of nurses on oral cancer to make the oral health checkup on admission viable for oral cancer screening.

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Objectives: This study was aimed to assess quantitatively and qualitatively the students' perceptions of teaching environment in a newly established dental school. Materials and Methods: A modified DREEM questionnaire was introduced to all the dental students of first and second year dentistry. Quantitative descriptive questions and open-ended questions were added to the questionnaire on the reasons why students joined the dental course and their perception of it as well as positive and negative aspects within the college. Results: Out of total thirty four students (97%) returned the completed questionnaire. The overall mean score was 101.39 indicating "more positive than negative environment". Scores in 4 out of the 5 domains were significantly higher in 1 ^st year students compared to 2 ^nd year students. Most of students had good social life. Students were not satisfied with the support system in the college. 73.5% of students chose the course themselves and 47.1% found the course tough while 32.4% found it interesting. Conclusions: It is important to assess the students' perceptions of educational environment in their first dental years especially in newly established colleges. Special attention should be paid to transition of students from first to second year. It would be interesting to monitor the perception of the same students over years.

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