ABSTRACT This study aims to evaluate the optimum duration of flushing dental unit waterlines (DUWLs) in Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM) dental polyclinics for removal of heterotrophic bacteria. Water samples were obtained from triple air syringes at each dental chair from oral surgery clinic, outpatient clinic and polyclinic 17 at Faculty of Dentistry, USIM after 16 and 64 hours of not operating the dental units as baseline samples. This is followed by sampling after continuous flushing at 30 seconds, 1 minute, 2 minutes and 3 minutes of flushing duration. The levels of heterotrophic plate count (HPC) for each flushing duration were determined by quantification of colony forming units (CFUs) after cultivation of samples on plate count agar (PCA), R2A agar and 5% sheep blood agar (SBA). Statistically, there was no significant reduction in CFUs of HPC for all flushing duration compared to baseline (P > 0.05) with the most notable HPC reducing level after 1 minute and 3 minutes of flushing DUWLs. However, HPC level at USIM dental clinics is still exceeding the recommendation by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) which should be less than 500 CFU/mL. The existing method of controlling DUWLs contamination in USIM dental clinics is only by flushing DUWLs 1 minute every morning prior to dental treatment as recommended by Malaysian Dental Council (MDC) without the use of chemical germicides. Thus, the flushing method alone is not reliable to reduce the number of microorganisms in the DUWLs.
Dental Clinics ; Biofilms

One complication related to local anesthesia in the dental clinic is a broken needle. Although rare, a broken needle may be difficult to retrieve. Dental radiographs and 3D CT have been used in the past to confirm the location of a broken needle. We present the case of a broken needle, which was successfully removed using a careful, microscopic approach.
Anesthesia, Local ; Dental Clinics ; Needles*

OBJECTIVES: To thoroughly understand the current dental chair equipment status of dental clinics in Sichuan Province and provide a reference for administrative departments. METHODS: Data were collected from a health administrative department and a regional social development yearbook. The number of existing dental clinics and dental chairs in Sichuan Province was investigated. RESULTS: In Sichuan Province, 7 103 dental clinics were determined to be equipped with 21 760 dental chairs. The Gini coefficients of per capita dental clinics in the province were 0.50, 0.22, and 0.06, and the Gini coefficients of per capita dental chairs were 0.68, 0.31, and 0.15; these coefficients had the same distribution as that reflected by the Lorenz curve. In consideration of geographic distribution, the Theil index for the distribution of dental clinics and dental chairs among cities and states were 0.690 7 and 0.822 3, respectively. The overall Theil index va-lues for the distribution of dental clinics and dental chairs in the province were 0.902 4 and 1.079 4, respectively. The difference in the distribution of dental clinics and dental chairs among cities and states in the province contributed 0.765 4 and 0.761 8 to the total difference, respectively. CONCLUSIONS The allocation of oral health resources in Sichuan Pro-vince is relatively equitable in terms of population and economic distribution but uneven in geographical distribution.
Dental Clinics ; Oral Health ; China

Dental Care ; Dental Clinics ; Emergencies ; Humans

This study aimed at comprehending the duty, role, and difficulty of intermediary manager through in-depth investigation of dental hygienist intermediary managers experienced over 10 years working in a dental clinic. In-depth interviews were conducted with 10 dental intermediary managers and Giorgi's analysis method was used to analyze the data. Findings revealed that the work experience of the dental hygienist intermediary managers appeared in the range of "becoming an intermediary manager through various processes", "various duties that they experience as an intermediary manager", "difficulty as an intermediary manager", "ability that they perceive as necessary for being a dental intermediary manager", and "worthiness they feel as the intermediary manager". The dental intermediary managers complained of difficulties at work, and appeared to perform various tasks such as human resource management, clinic management support, and patient's management. Accordingly, the researcher considers that research on dental intermediary managers' capacity development necessary.
Dental Clinics ; Dental Hygienists ; Humans ; Methods

The purpose of this study was to investigate the validity and reliability of the Korean version of a tool used to measure dental anxiety and fear. The Index of Dental Anxiety and Fear (IDAF-4C+) was translated into Korean, and modified and revised to adapt to Korean culture. A survey was conducted among 457 patients in a dental clinic. The validity and reliability were determined using PASW Statistics ver. 18.0 and IBM SPSS AMOS ver. 21.0. Factor analysis showed that Korean version of IDAF-4C+ was composed of three elements: dental anxiety, dental phobia, feared stimulus. The validity of the model was examined by confirmatory factor analysis and satisfied relevant requirements. All elements had convergent validity and discriminant validity exceeding requirements to ensure validity. Cronbach's α showed good reliability. In conclusion, the findings of this study demonstrate that the Korean version of IDAF-4C+ has high validity and reliability. Furthermore, it can be used in clinical practice and research to decrease dental anxiety and fear.
Dental Anxiety* ; Dental Clinics ; Humans ; Reproducibility of Results*

The purpose of this study was to investigate a reliability and validity of the Korean version for measuring tool the job embeddedness of dental hygienists. The survey was modified and revised to fit into Korean culture. A survey was conducted with 274 dental hygienists in dental clinics. The data was used for the analysis of the study, using PASW Statistics 18.0 and IBM SPSS AMOS 7.0. The factor analysis showed that the job embeddedness of the dental hygienists was composed of three elements, namely ‘organization fit’, ‘job connectivity’, and ‘personnel relationships’. The validity of the model examined by a confirmatory factor analysis satisfied most of the relevant requirements. All of the factors had the conceptual reliability and variant extracted index above the minimum requirements, ensuring reliability and concentrated validity. The Cronbach’s alpha shows a good reliability. In conclusion, it was proven that dental hygienist’s job embeddedness measurement tool has high validity and reliability. Further, this study could be used to improve dental hygienist’s long term working, and the growth stage of dental clinic.
Dental Clinics ; Dental Hygienists* ; Humans ; Reproducibility of Results*

PURPOSE: To establish reference doses of periapical radiography in Chonnam Province, Korea. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The target-skin distances were measured for dental patient's 1235 exposures including 345 mandibular molar areas. Each periapical radiation exposure was simulated with exactly the same patients exposure parameters and the simulated radiation doses were measured utilizing Mult-O-Meter (Unfors Instruments, Billadal, Sweden). The measurements were done in 44 dental clinics with 49 dental x-ray sets in Chonnam Province for one or two weeks at each dental clinic during year 2006. RESULTS: The third quartile patient surface doses were 2.8 mGy for overall periapical exposures and 3.2 mGy for periapical mandibular molar exposures. CONCLUSION: The third quartile patient surface doses in Chonnam Province can be used as a guide to accepted clinical practice to reduce patient radiation exposure for the surveyed reference doses were below the recommended dental periapical radiography dose of 7 mGy by IAEA.
Dental Clinics ; Humans ; Molar ; Radiography, Panoramic

PURPOSE: Recently implant surgical guides were used for accurate and atraumatic operation. In this study, the accuracy of two different types of surgical guides, positioning device fabricated and stereolithography fabricated surgical guides, were evaluated in four different types of tooth loss models. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Surgical guides were fabricated with stereolithography and positioning device respectively. Implants were placed on 40 models using the two different types of surgical guides. The fitness of the surgical guides was evaluated by measuring the gap between the surgical guide and the model. The accuracy of surgical guide was evaluated on a pre- and post-surgical CT image fusion. RESULTS: The gap between the surgical guide and the model was 1.4 +/- 0.3 mm and 0.4 +/- 0.3 mm for the stereolithography and positioning device surgical guide, respectively. The stereolithography showed mesiodistal angular deviation of 3.9 +/- 1.6degrees, buccolingual angular deviation of 2.7 +/- 1.5degrees and vertical deviation of 1.9 +/- 0.9 mm, whereas the positioning device showed mesiodistal angular deviation of 0.7 +/- 0.3degrees, buccolingual angular deviation of 0.3 +/- 0.2degrees and vertical deviation of 0.4 +/- 0.2 mm. The differences were statistically significant between the two groups (P<.05). CONCLUSION: The laboratory fabricated surgical guides using a positioning device allow implant placement more accurately than the stereolithography surgical guides in dental clinic.
Dental Clinics ; Surgery, Computer-Assisted ; Tooth Loss

Purpose: This study was designed to investigate the present conditions of illumination techniques in dental clinics in order to contribute improvement of operating environment. This study also aimed exploring qualitative and quantitative luminous intensity required for color temperature in dental clinic illumination, which was a critical part of esthetic dentistry. Materials and methods: A total of forty-eight local dental clinics were selected for sampling a) luminous intensity, and b) color temperature. The author measured the luminous intensity and the color temperature with lux meter and color meter respectively between 12pm and 2pm. The dental unit chair placed in the general operation positions were kept the distance 60 cm, then all dental units were measured three times and averaged. The author measured the luminous intensity and color temperature with both common dental operating light and then without operating light in different office environments. The study was conducted under three conditions: 1. artificial illumination in clear day light 2. artificial illumination in cloudy day light, and 3. artificial illumination alone. Results: The results obtained were as follows. 1. The average luminous intensity in dental clinic lighting was 425 lux which was not sufficient to produce the optimal shade of the patient's teeth. Furthermore, the average luminous intensity even in full operating lighting was 9532 lux which fell short of the required level of 10,000 lux. 2. The average color temperature of all dental clinics surveyed was 5169 K which met the optimal range. However, only 33.3% fell in the correct region between 5,000-5,500 K as 25% were over 5,500 K and 41.6% were below 5,000 K. As a result, 66.7% were under insufficient color temperature conditions. 3. The dental unit chair placed next to a window, hence exposure to natural lighting, had significantly higher luminous intensity and color temperature compared to the dental unit chair which didn't have a window or natural lighting. 4. The data analysis revealed that only 6.3% of the dental clinic were met the standard of the average luminous intensity and color temperature.
Dental Clinics* ; Dentistry ; Lighting* ; Statistics as Topic ; Tooth