This in-vitro study aimed to evaluate and compare the marginal leakage and penetration ability of a moisture-tolerant (Embrace WetBondTM) and a conventional (ClinproTM) resin-based sealants under three different enamel surface preparations (acid etched, acid etched and saliva contaminated and bur preparation and acid etched). One hundred and twenty extracted caries free human premolars teeth were cleaned and randomly divided into six groups of equal numbers, according to the type of sealants used and surface preparations. All the sealed teeth were subjected to thermocycling and immersed in a methylene blue dye. Each tooth was then embedded into acrylic resin before it was sectioned into four sections per tooth. Marginal leakage and unfilled surface area (indicating penetration depth of resin) were then measured using an optical 3D measurement device (Alicona Infinite Focus®). Both sealants exhibited comparable proportion of marginal leakage on acid etched only surfaces. Moisture-tolerant sealant showed the least proportion of marginal leakage on bur prepared and etched surfaces. Presence of saliva has detrimental effect on adhesion of both sealants. Nevertheless, depth of penetration of sealant into the fissures is comparable with both sealant types irrespective of the surface preparations.
Pit and Fissure Sealants ; Dental Caries ; Dental Materials

Identifi cation of unknown suspect through bite marks has always been challenging. Narrowing list of suspects through sex and race markers is always recommend but rarely utilized due to limited publication in this area. Thus, this preliminary research was aimed to study the difference of bite mark made on dental wax between sex and race. A sample size of 40 UKM undergraduates comprising of Malay (male = 10, female = 10) and Chinese (male = 10, female = 10) were used in this study. Bite mark of subject was obtained through dental wax, digitally scanned and analyzed using Image-J software. Parameters measured were anterior teeth size, intercanine width and anterior teeth relative rotation. Result indicated that mandible left canine tooth size had signifi cant sexual dimorphism (p < 0.05) in differentiating sex. The means for male and female measured were 4.63 ± 1.05 mm and 5.35 ± 0.87 mm respectively. In addition to the result, tooth size of maxillary left canine and mandible left lateral incisor were signifi cantly different (p < 0.05) between races. Means for mandible left canine Malay and Chinese were 5.27 ± 1.01 mm and 4.50 ± 1.22 mm respectively. Furthermore, left lateral incisor mandible had means of 5.15 ± 0.87 mm and 4.60 ± 0.74 mm for Malay and Chinese respectively. Unfortunately, there were no signifi cant differences for intercanine width and anterior teeth relative rotation between the two major races in Malaysia. In conclusion, this research has demonstrated the possibility of using tooth size of mandible left canine, maxillary left canine and mandible left lateral discriminate sex and race.
Tooth

PURPOSE: To compare the outcome of two different curriculum in clinical pathology using students' retention capacity. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted in December 2017. There were two groups of students enrolled in clinical pathology course. A retention test therefore was conducted 5 months after the course had finished using 25 multiple choice questions-single best answer. Comparisons of means are determined by Mann-Whitney U-test using SPSS version 23.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, USA). RESULTS: A total of 280 students participated in the study of a 5-month post-course evaluation, and the average for the first group (n=138) is 10.93±3.57 while the second group (n=142) average is 8.56±3.19. The difference between the first and the second group are statistically significant (p<0.00001). CONCLUSION The group with longer duration and more number of parallel courses had a higher retention score. Further research using retention test in different courses should be conducted to analyze which curriculum that promotes students' understanding of medical knowledge.

PURPOSE: To compare the outcome of two different curriculum in clinical pathology using students' retention capacity. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted in December 2017. There were two groups of students enrolled in clinical pathology course. A retention test therefore was conducted 5 months after the course had finished using 25 multiple choice questions-single best answer. Comparisons of means are determined by Mann-Whitney U-test using SPSS version 23.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, USA). RESULTS: A total of 280 students participated in the study of a 5-month post-course evaluation, and the average for the first group (n=138) is 10.93±3.57 while the second group (n=142) average is 8.56±3.19. The difference between the first and the second group are statistically significant (p<0.00001). CONCLUSION: The group with longer duration and more number of parallel courses had a higher retention score. Further research using retention test in different courses should be conducted to analyze which curriculum that promotes students' understanding of medical knowledge.
Cross-Sectional Studies ; Curriculum ; Education, Medical ; Humans ; Indonesia ; Pathology, Clinical

Bisecting-angle-technique is a method used to improve patient comfort during periapical radiography. This technique is usually performed without X-ray beam aiming device and has been commonly associated with dental radiographic error. The use of external marker as a beam aiming device in bisecting-angle-technique is potentially effective to reduce the number of errors occurring during periapical radiography. In this study, 240 periapical radiographs were taken by undergraduate dental students. Periapical radiographs were taken using traditional method of bisecting-angle-technique (BAT), bisecting-angle-technique with the use of external marker (BAT-M) and the standard method in periapical radiography; paralleling technique (PT). All radiographic images were evaluated and errors were classified and tabled according to the type and number of errors. Chi-square test was used to compare the total number of radiographic errors made using these three techniques. One of the most common errors with BAT was cone cut error (13.8%). This error had been markedly reduced to 1.3% and 2.5% by implementation of BAT-M and PT, respectively. The total number of errors was also found to be significantly lesser for BAT-M compared to BAT, p< 0.05.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the reject rate of periapical and bitewing radiographs among dental undergraduate students of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), identify the type of radiographic errors which are frequently encountered and compare reject rates between Year 3, Year 4 and Year 5 dental undergraduates. 118 rejected periapical radiographs and 27 rejected bitewing radiographs were collected from the UKM dental undergraduates’ polyclinics for a duration of 10 months. These rejected radiographs were further evaluated to determine the type of radiographic error. A spiking increase in periapical radiographs reject rate from Year 3 (4%) to Year 4 (11%) was observed. This finding was consistent with the statistically significant difference in the periapical radiographs reject rates for Year 3 and Year 4 (p = 0.0475). In periapical radiographs, the most frequently committed radiographic error was apical cut, followed by high density film. Vice versa, high density film was accounted as the most common radiographic error in bitewing radiography. Analysis of periapical and bitewing radiographs’ reject rates among UKM dental undergraduate entails the necessity to supervise undergraduate students regardless of the year of their undergraduate training in all aspects of the radiographic procedures which include positioning radiographic armamentarium, the setting of radiographic exposure time and the film processing procedure.

Objective: To evaluate the aphrodisiac property of Aplysia dactylomela (A. dactylomelan), locally known as 'dugu-dugu', which is one of the sea slug species. Methods: Two types of extractions were used; aqueous and lipid. Three doses of each A. dactylomelan extract, respectively; 50, 100, 200 mg/kg were administered (i.p.) to male mice for mounting behavior test. Sildenafil citrate or Viagra® (5 mg/kg) being positive control while negative control received saline solution. Results: The animals treated with lipid extract at the respective dose exhibited mounting behavior, but the mounting frequency decreased at higher doses (100 and 200 mg/kg). However, all doses of aqueous extract did not show any mounting behavior. Meanwhile, in all doses of lipid extracts administered displayed significant difference (P<0.05) from the positive control. Despite this, only the lipid extract of 50 mg/kg showed significant difference (P<0.05) with negative control. This signifies that lipid extracts especially in dose 50 mg/kg have a substantial effect of aphrodisiac property. In addition, the presence of steroids was detected in the phytochemical screening of lipid extract. Conlusions: The findings from this study provides preliminary scientific evidence that A. dactylomela could be used as an alternative medication of natural product for promoting sexual activity in men.

The application of artificial intelligence (AI) is on the rise in the healthcare industry. However, the study on the physicians’ perspectives is still lacking. The study aimed to examine physicians’ attitudes, expectations, and concerns regarding the application of AI in medicine. A cross-sectional study was conducted in October 2019 among physicians in a tertiary teaching hospital in Malaysia. The survey used a validated questionnaire from the literature, which covered: (1) socio-demographic profile; (2) attitude towards the application of AI; (3) expected application in medicine; and (4) possible risks of using AI. Comparison of the mean score between the groups using a t-test or one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). A total of 112 physicians participated in the study: 64.3% from the clinical departments; 35.7% from the non-clinical specialties. The physicians from non-clinical departments had significantly higher mean attitude score (mean = 14.94 ± 3.12) compared to the clinical (person-oriented) departments (mean = 14.13 ± 3.10) and clinical (technique-oriented) departments (mean = 13.06 ± 2.88) (p = 0.033). The tech-savvy participants had a significantly higher mean attitude score (mean = 14.72 ± 3.55) than the non–tech-savvy participants (mean = 13.21 ± 2.46) (p = 0.01). There are differences in the expectations among the respondents and some concerns exist especially on the legal aspect of AI application in medicine. Proper training and orientation should precede its implementation and must be appropriate to the physicians’ needs for its utilization and sustainability.