ASSOCIATION BETWEEN CHEWING ABILITY AND COGNITIVE FUNCTION AMONG OLDER PATIENTS Tooth loss is commonly linked to reduced chewing ability and cognitive function among the older population. This study aimed to assess the association between masticatory ability and cognitive function among older patients in one of the public university dental clinic in Kuala Lumpur. A cross-sectional study was performed on 76 dental patients aged over 60 years who received treatment in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. Dental examination was performed to assess the respondents’ dental status, namely the number of teeth present and their denture status. Masticatory ability of the respondents was assessed with Masticatory Performance Evaluating Chewing Gum (XYLITOL®; Lotte Co., Ltd., Saitama, Japan). The color-changeable chewing gum was categorized into five levels. Darker pink color showed higher chewing ability while yellow implied poorer score. Based on the colour, a score of 1 to 5 points was given. Cognitive status was measured with the 13-items Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) questionnaire. The scores ranged between 0 to 30. A score of 23 or below was accepted cutoff point indicating the presence of cognitive impairment. The mean number of remaining teeth was 11.6 ± 10.24, with 30.3% having total tooth loss. The mean chewing score was 3.37 ± 1.41. About 46.1% of respondents were classified as poor chewers, and 53.9% were good chewers. Older people who had fewer teeth and decreased chewing performance had significantly reduced MMSE scores. The MMSE score was significantly correlated with the number of teeth present (r=0.331; p<0.05) and masticatory ability (r=0.594; p<0.05). It is suggested that having an optimal number of teeth in the oral cavity for good masticatory function is important to good cognitive functioning. In addition, long-term studies are required to investigate the relationship between the role of masticatory ability on cognition especially among older population.

EFFECTIVENESS OF INTRAORAL RADIOGRAPHY TRAINING KIT FOR DENTAL UNDERGRADUATES: A PRELIMINARY STUDY Insufficient intraoral radiography training among dental students may lead to an increased radiograph rejection rate at a dental institution which may require a corrective action plan as suggested by the Malaysian Dental Council. The number of trained staff to provide continuous training among dental students in radiographic taking is usually inadequate in most dental institutions, including UKM. To overcome this problem, the intraoral radiography training kit is potentially useful as a self-directed learning aid that students can access anytime for continuous training in intraoral radiography and hence reduce the rejection rate associated with radiographic taking among dental students. This study is aimed to determine the effectiveness of the intraoral radiography training kit and demonstration videos in radiographic taking among dental undergraduates. This type of study is an experimental (parallel group design) to compare the rejection rate between a group of students who are exposed to the radiography training kit (trial group) and a group of students who are not exposed to the intervention (control group). This study involved a convenient sampling of 10 students within the clinical year (Year 4 and Year 5) who had at least one rejected radiograph at undergraduates' polyclinics from March until July 2022. Results showed the mean rank of the radiograph rejection rate in the trial group was lesser than the control group, following the intervention period. In addition, there is a statistically significant difference between the means of radiograph rejection rate before and after exposure to the intraoral radiography training kit (p-value < 0.05). In conclusion, an intraoral radiography training kit is an efficient tool to facilitate dental undergraduates in improving their radiographic skills.

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.

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