Patients diagnosed with head and neck cancer often require various treatments, including radiation therapy. Dentists, as oral health specialists and members of the multidisciplinary cancer care team, must possess the knowledge to ensure accurate and timely dental management. This enables patients to receive cancer treatment within the required timeframe, especially for radiation or post-surgical radiation, while considering the limited time for dental care. Pre-radiation dental management involves eliminating sources of oral infection, educating patients, addressing the risk of dry mouth, masticatory muscle contracture, and making decisions about tooth extractions. During radiation, patients are advised to perform fluoride applications and practice jaw muscle exercises to maintain mobility. Post-radiation dental care extends throughout the patient's lifetime, focusing on caries and periodontal disease prevention. Proper coordination between dental and oncological treatments is essential to ensure the patient’s overall health and successful cancer treatment outcomes.

This report presents the use of palatal prostheses to restore the remaining palatal defects in eight patients with cleft lip-cleft palate. Two adult patients had small palatal defects, but they rejected surgical correction. Two pediatric patients had small palatal defects, but it was not a proper time for surgical repair. Four pediatric patients had palatal defects that could not be corrected surgically with an adjacent tissue. Their palatal defects were reconstructed with acrylic-based palatal prostheses, which were designed based on the principles of removable dentures, with additional considerations such as the tissue characteristics around the defects, forces acting on the prostheses, the condition of teeth, and caries risks. Other than this, there were chair-side relining and border molding procedures to improve adaptability and seal of the palatal prostheses. Using palatal prostheses improves patients’ overall quality of life.

Disc displacement can cause limited mouth opening, jaw locking, and joint pain. Although it can resolve on its own over months to years, timely conservative treatment is essential to prevent further disc deterioration and improve quality of life. A 25-year-old woman reported difficulty opening her mouth for six months, along with tightness and pain radiating to the right temple. She reported a history of joint clicking that later disappeared. Clinical examination and magnetic resonance imaging confirmed disc displacement without reduction. Additionally, she presented with right masseter muscle pain, rated seven out of ten on the pain scale, radiating to the temporal region during mouth opening, which was diagnosed as myofascial pain with referral. The combined treatment involved patient education, warm compresses on the masseter muscles, a hard upper occlusal splint with increased thickness, active jaw exercises in front of a mirror, and passive exercises using silicone tubes and wooden tongue depressors. After ten months, her mouth opening improved from 15 mm to 52 mm, with normal jaw movements and no pain. This case demonstrates that non-surgical management can effectively treat chronic disc displacement without reduction, along with myofascial pain with referral, resulting in significant improvements in mouth opening and jaw function.

Regular dental visits is important. Early treating disease prevents damage that is difficult to reverse. Whether the pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 in Thailand affects dental visits or not, is of great interest. The purpose of this study is to detect the prevalence and related factors of dental visits during pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019. This study was a cross-sectional descriptive study. Data were collected from volunteers who received services at a university hospital, were of Thai race and nationality, and aged between 20-59 years. Using a questionnaire consisting of 4 sections of questions: general information, attitudes and knowledge about oral health, awareness of one's own health problems and dental visits during the pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Related factors were analyzed using multiple logistic regression. Data collected from 378 service recipients, revealed that the prevalence of dental visits during pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 was 46.0 percent. Related factors were attitudes and oral health knowledge and oral problems that were necessary to receive dental treatment. The group considering that going for a dental check-up and scaling is important was 2.38 times more likely to have dental visits during the pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 compared to the group reflecting that it is not important (95% CI =1.19, 4.73). The group which worried about or scared of having dental visits was 0.52 times less likely to have dental visits during the pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 compared to the group with no worries or fears (95% CI = 0.29, 0.92). The group which wanted to cancel or postpone a dental appointment was 0.35 times less likely to have dental visits during the pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 compared to the group which did not want to (95% CI = 0.21, 0.60). The group with oral problems that needed dental treatment was 2.70 times more likely to have dental visits during the pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 compared to the group with no oral problems (95% CI = 1.66, 4.38). In conclusion, the prevalence of dental visits during pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 was 46.0 percent. Related factors were attitudes and oral health knowledge and oral problems that were necessary to receive dental treatment.

The purpose of this study was to compare unloading force of glass fiber-reinforced wire (GF), non-coated superelastic NiTi wires (NC), epoxy-coated NiTi wire (EC), and Teflon-coated NiTi wire (TC) in ceramic passive self-ligating bracket. The modified three-point bending test was conducted on an ideal upper arch model with intentionally omitted maxillary right lateral incisor. Ceramic passive self-ligating brackets were bonded, and the model was set in a controlled-temperature water bath at 36±0.5° Celsius. The universal testing machine with 100 newton load cells was used. The arch-shaped preformed GF, NC, EC and TC wire was attached to the model and the indenter was set perpendicular to the middle portion of the space of maxillary right lateral incisor. The crosshead speed was 0.5mm/min and the deflection was settled at 1.5 mm for the GF wire and 3 mm for the NiTi wire. Then, the unloading force was measured at every 0.5 mm until the deflection was 0 mm. The experiment was repeated ten times per group and a new archwire was used on every test. The minimum and maximum unloading force measured from the GF group was 14.54 and 134.36 g, the NC group was 41.60 and 526.49 g, the EC group was 35.54 and 289.12 g and the TC group was 56.57 and 514.58 g. The loading and unloading curve of the GF group showed no hysteresis while the NC, EC, and TC groups presented the comparative style of a force-deflection curve with hysteresis and a steep plateau. The four types of wire listed from the lowest to highest unloading force are GF, EC, TC and NC groups.

Autistic children have difficulty understanding abstract concepts and responding to communication. This becomes even more challenging when they need to receive healthcare services, especially in dentistry, which is often a source of fear and anxiety for most people. Visual communication is therefore an effective method to increase understanding and help promote cooperation among autistic children in receiving dental services. This study aims to examine the level of cooperation of autistic children during dental examinations when using a social story book. The sample group consisted of 30 pairs of parents and autistic children aged 3 - 12 years who received dental services at the Queen Sirikit National Institute of Child Health, Rajanagarindra Institute of Child Development, and Yuwaprasart Waithayopathum Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Hospital, selected through purposive sampling. The tools used in the study included a social story book titled "I Go to the Dentist," which parents used consistently with their children for 4 weeks before seeing the dentist, a general information record form, and Frankl's Behavior Rating Scale to record cooperation levels during dental examinations. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The results showed that the average cooperation level of all participants was 3.03 (SD = 1.0), and the average cooperation level of the target group who had never experienced a dental visit before was 3.40 (SD = 0.9). The highest cooperation scores were for the steps of traveling to the hospital to see the dentist and sitting in the waiting room before entering the dental office. The lowest cooperation scores were for cooperation during the use of suction devices and dental examination tools. The study shows that using the social story book "I'm Going to the Dentist" can be used to promote preparation for autistic children to receive dental examinations and dental health services.

Various caries risk assessment (CRA) forms have been developed as an essential element in risk-based caries management. However, most established CRAs were developed based on the evidence in Western countries, potentially limiting their applicability to different demographic groups. This cross-sectional study aimed to evaluate the predictive performance of caries risk/protective factors from established CRA forms in predicting the presence of cavitated caries lesions in Thai preschool children and to compare the associations between these factors and caries status. A total of 122 children participated, with parental interviews conducted using a comprehensive questionnaire that integrated caries/protective factors from CRAs endorsed by AAPD, ADA, and DAT. Participants were categorized into two groups based on caries status: those with and without cavitated caries lesions. A Random Forest classifier was utilized for predictive model construction, and important factors were identified through the Boruta algorithm and Recursive Feature Elimination (RFE). Factors associated with the caries status included age, the educational level of the primary caregiver, visible plaque, and sibling’s caries status. The Out-of-Bag (OBB) error rates of models generated from individual CRA forms were comparable, with a slightly lower error rate observed in the model that combined all three CRA forms. Key factors identified as important for predicting caries status were the number of non-cavitated caries lesions, visible plaque, and sibling’s caries status. This study highlighted the importance of these factors in caries risk assessment among Thai preschool children. These findings, aligned with established CRAs, could guide the development of tailored CRA forms for this population. Further studies with larger, more diverse cohorts and a longitudinal design are recommended to validate these findings and enhance their utility as caries predictors.