BACKGROUND HIV infected patients should be expected in the Sudanese dental health care services with an increasing frequency. Dental care utilization in the context of the HIV epidemic is generally poorly understood. Focusing on Sudanese dental patients with reported unknown HIV status, this study assessed the extent to which Andersen's model in terms of predisposing (socio-demographics), enabl...

BACKGROUND There were some debates about the water fluoridation program in South Korea, even if the program had generally substantial effectiveness. Because the out-of-pocket expenditures for dental care were higher in South Korea than in other countries, an efficient solution was needed. Therefore, we examined the relationship between the implementation of water fluoridation and the utilizatio...

An integrated single-tooth modeling scheme is proposed for the 3D dental model acquired by optical digitizers. The cores of the modeling scheme are fusion regions extraction, single tooth shape restoration, and single tooth separation. According to the "valley" shape-like characters of the fusion regions between two adjoining teeth, the regions of the 3D dental model are analyzed and classified...

BACKGROUND To investigate the role of geography (place of residence) as a moderator in the relationship between dental caries disease and treatment experience and dental fear in 16-year-olds living in Malaysia. METHODS A multi-stage-stratified sampling method was employed. Five hundred and three, 16-year-olds from 6 government secondary schools participated in this study. The questionnaire ex...

BACKGROUND Need perceptions for dental care play a key role as to whether people in general will seek dental care. The aim was to assess the prevalence of perceived need of problem based dental care, dental check-ups and any type of dental care. Guided by the conceptual model of Wilson and Cleary, the relationship of perceived need for dental care with socio-demographic characteristics, clinica...

The aims of this study were to document the extent of nutritional content in U.S. dental hygiene program curricula; identify program directors' opinions, perceptions, and barriers to expanding nutritional content; and evaluate if a proposed nutrition curriculum model would be beneficial. This mixed methods study involved quantitative and qualitative aspects. An invitation letter was sent to all...

Difficulties with in vivo studies of natural plaque and its complex, heterogeneous structure have led to development of laboratory biofilm plaque model systems. Technologies for their culture are outlined, and the rationale, strengths, and relative uses of two complementary approaches to microbial models with a focus on plaque biodiversity are analyzed. Construction of synthetic consortia biofi...

Previous studies on the healthcare service quality have either ignored the multi-dimensional nature of healthcare services or naively generalized their research findings to dental services. This study reports the development of a comprehensive model that measures dental service quality in a hierarchical method. Examining the quality structure of dental services by using an analytic hierarchy pr...

The purpose of this article is to describe alternative means of providing patient centered, preventive based, services using an alternative non-profit, economic model. Hard to reach, vulnerable groups, including children, adults and elders, often have difficulties accessing traditional dental services for a number of reasons, including economic barriers. By partnering with community organizatio...