Fabiana Vargas-Ferreira

O estudo investigou as dificuldades e estratégias no atendimento clínico odontológico e radiográfico de indivíduos com Transtorno do Espectro Autista (TEA). O objetivo foi relatar os desafios e soluções encontradas na prestação de cuidados bucais a esses indivíduos. A metodologia inclui uma revisão narrativa da literatura e um relato de vivência em um projeto de extensão da Faculdade de Odontologia da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG). Os resultados indicam que as principais dificuldades envolvem comunicação limitada, comportamento não colaborativo e sensibilidade sensorial dos indivíduos. Foram implementadas estratégias como o uso de abafadores de ruído, redução da luz e a apresentação prévia dos materiais utilizados. Tais técnicas visam reduzir a ansiedade, aumentar a cooperação e facilitar os procedimentos odontológicos e radiológicos. A conclusão destaca a importância da preparação e do domínio de técnicas específicas para garantir um atendimento eficaz e humanizado aos indivíduos com TEA. E enfatiza a necessidade de dessensibilização e previsibilidade para manter os pacientes calmos e colaborativos, resultando em um atendimento mais eficiente e assertivo.

Objective: This study investigated the utilization of medical and dental services by transgender Brazilians and their associated factors. Methods: A national cross‐sectional survey was conducted in 2021 with 549 self‐identified transgender adults (231 male, 183 female, and 135 other gender) aged 18–61 years. Participants were recruited through social media using snowball sampling and answered an electronic structured questionnaire. Outcomes were the frequency of medical and dental appointments. Associated factors included sociodemographic characteristics, use of social name, partnership, children, religion, health information sources, perceived health needs, experience of gender‐based violence, and type of health services used. Odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CIS) were estimated using backward stepwise logistic regression models. Results: Respondents who attended public schools (OR 1.73; 95% CI 1.01–2.88), had no income (OR 1.96; 95% CI 1.01–3.85), and relied solely on the public health system (OR 2.48; 95% CI 1.36–4.50) were more likely to have semiannual medical consultations. Conversely, those who attended public schools (OR 1.89; 95% CI 1.09–3.31), had ≤ 9 years of schooling (OR 1.74; 95% CI 1.13–2.68), were unemployed (OR 1.88; 95% CI 1.04–3.42), or had experienced gender‐based violence (OR 1.57; 95% CI 1.02–2.41) were more likely to rarely or never attend dental consultations. Conclusions: Transgender Brazilians predominantly used the public health system, attending medical consultations semiannually but rarely dental appointments. Lower education, unemployment, lack of income, and exposure to gender‐based violence shaped healthcare utilization, highlighting persistent barriers to equitable and comprehensive health access.

The aim of the present study was to investigate oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) and factors associated with sleep bruxism (SB) in preschool children through a comparative cross-sectional study. One hundred thirty-five preschool children (27 with SB and 108 without SB) were randomly selected from primary care units in the city of Diamantina, Minas Gerais, Brazil. The groups were matched for age, sex, and family income at a proportion of 1:4. Parents/guardians answered a questionnaire addressing sociodemographic and gestational characteristics as well as information on the child's health, and breastfeeding. The Brazilian version of the Early Childhood Oral Health Impact Scale (B-ECOHIS) was used to investigate the impact of oral problems on the OHRQoL of the preschool children, for which higher scores denote a greater negative impact. Oral clinical examinations were performed for the diagnosis of dental caries (dmft index), traumatic dental injuries, and malocclusion. Statistical analysis involved descriptive statistics as well as unadjusted and adjusted conditional logistic regression models (95%CI, p < 0.05). The final adjusted logistic regression model revealed that children who resided in rural areas (OR = 3.75; 95%CI: 1.41-9.95; p = 0.008), those with cohabitating parents (OR = 3.99; 95%CI: 1.21-13.20; p = 0.023), and those with a Baume type II lower arch (OR = 3.35; 95%CI: 1.25-8.98; p = 0.016) were more likely to have SB. The occurrence of SB was greater in children who resided in rural areas, those with cohabitating parents, and those with a Baume type II lower arch. OHRQoL was not associated with the outcome.

In this cross-sectional study, carried out in 2012, we assessed factors associated with tooth loss among adolescents from Minas Gerais, Brazil, utilizing data from a secondary database. Individual and local-level variables were selected to represent health determinants. Individual covariates included sex, age, skin color, maternal education, household income, use of dental services, and self-perceived need for dental care. The contextual variables included illiteracy, unemployment, income, primary health care coverage, dental specialty centers, and oral health team coverage. Multilevel logistic regression models were used to examine the relationship between contextual and individual variables and the outcome (STATA version 16.0) – odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI). The prevalence of tooth loss was 12.4%. Female individuals were 40% more likely to experience the outcome (OR: 1.40; 95%CI: 1.01–1.98). Increased age was associated with greater tooth loss (OR: 1.16; 95%CI: 1.03-1.31). Low maternal education (OR: 1.72; 95%CI: 1.13–2.61), low household income (OR: 1.71; 95% CI 1.09-2.67), and self-perceived dental needs (OR: 2.94; 95% CI 1.97-4.39) were also associated with the outcome. Regular dental visits reduced the likelihood of tooth loss by 38% (OR: 0.62; 95 CI 0.44–0.87). Larger tooth loss was observed in municipalities with higher illiteracy rates (OR: 1.04; 95%CI: 1.01–1.08). Municipalities with larger dental specialty centers were associated with the outcome (OR: 0.58; 95%CI: 0.37–0.92). Contextual and individual factors influenced tooth loss in adolescents from Minas Gerais, Brazil, but socioeconomic status was the main determinant.

This cross-sectional study aims to investigate the prevalence of oral manifestations in a sample of the Brazilian population with COVID-19. Adults diagnosed with COVID-19 through real-time PCR/serological tests were invited to participate. The online questionnaires were distributed at different times to analyze and compare SARS-CoV-2 variants considering the period of prevalence of these variants in Brazil. A total of 846 participants were included, of whom 539 were diagnosed before the Omicron variant. In total, 47.28% were vaccinated with at least two doses. The prevalence of oral manifestations was 52.6% (95%CI: 49.23–55.95), and the most common manifestations included taste disorder (38.06%; 95%CI: 34.85–41.38), xerostomia (17.61%; 95%CI: 15.19–20.32), and halitosis (11.58%; 95%CI: 9.59–13.92). The prevalence of persistent symptoms in post-COVID-19 was 12.1% (95%CI: 10.0–14.4) for taste disorder and 5.4% (95%CI: 4.1–7.1) for xerostomia. A significant association was found between females and persistent taste disorder (p = 0.0084) and oral manifestation and depression/anxiety (OR = 1.855, 95%CI: 1.267–2.717, p = 0.002), worse oral hygiene (OR = 1.729, 95%CI: 1.189–2.516, p = 0.004), and medication use (OR = 1.630, 95%CI: 1.123–2.367, p = 0.010) (p < 0.0001). In the Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta variants, compared with the Omicron variant, taste disorder and xerostomia were less present when toothbrushing habits remained unchanged or improved (p < 0.0001). Oral manifestations in patients with COVID-19 were associated with depression/anxiety, worse oral hygiene, and medication, all of which reinforce its multifactorial etiopathogenesis.

Dentists are exposed to the risk of infection by respiratory diseases to aerosols potentially contaminated. The factors associated with dentists' fear of infecting relatives because of dental practice were investigated. Questionnaires structured in Google Forms were sent to dentists in Belo Horizonte city, Brazil, who worked before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The dependent variable was “fear of infecting family members”. The independent variables were sociodemographic characteristics, use of personal protective equipment (PPE) before and during the pandemic, important actions to prevent infection, knowledge and feelings about the pandemic, and the future of the profession. Analyses were performed using Pearson's chi-square test and Fisher's exact test (p≤0.05). The prevalence of fear was 84.3%. Having changed the use of surgical masks (p=0.038) and N95/PFF2/PFF3 masks (p = 0.043), having not changed the use of lab coats (p=0.013), greater anxiety during the pandemic period (p=0.004), and fear of being infected by a patient or colleague (p<0.001) were associated with the fear of infecting family members. The fear of infecting relatives made the dentists more anxious, with the fear of infection by patients or co-workers as well as more careful about the use of PPE.

Objective: This systematic review and meta‐analysis aimed to compare the occurrence of dental caries and developmental defects of enamel (DDE) in individuals with and without cerebral palsy (CP). Materials and Methods: We conducted searches across five databases and the grey literature. Data were organized using EndNote 20. Reporting followed the MOOSE checklist. A random‐effects model meta‐analyses were conducted using RStudio, presenting results as mean difference (MD), odds ratio (OR), and 95% confidence interval (CI). The risk of bias of studies was analyzed using the Newcastle‐Ottawa Scale, and the certainty of evidence was assessed using GRADE. Results: Among 1336 identified records, 25 studies involving 59,997 participants (mean age: 11.1 years) were included. Data of 12 were pooled into meta‐analyses. No significant differences were found between CP and non‐CP individuals across indices: DMFT ( k = 7) (MD = 0.31; 95% CI [−0.42–1.05]), dmft ( k = 4) (MD = 0.31; 95% CI [−0.50–1.14]), DMFS ( k = 2) (MD = −0.61; 95% CI [−20.56–19.33]), dmfs ( k = 3) (MD = 0.54; 95% CI [−1.09–2.17]), and DDE ( k = 3) (OR = 0.80, 95% CI [0.09–7.31]). The certainty of evidence was very low. Conclusion: Individuals with CP do not appear to differ significantly from those without CP in terms of dental caries experience and DDE.

The study assessed the Global Quality Score (GQS) and informational engagement of users with YouTube videos on the Brazilian public health system (SUS). The YouTube video search tool was used with the Portuguese keywords ‘unified health system’ and ‘SUS’. The first 100 videos returned in the search were studied, using the GQS to measure their educational value, usefulness, and information quality. Users’ engagement with the videos was calculated based on their number of likes/reactions and comments. Other data collected were authorship, year of publication, topic approached, target audience, video length, and use of references. Two trained and calibrated researchers collected the data. Multiple analysis was performed with Logistic Regression, using a 95% confidence interval and significance of p<0.05. There were no poor or generally poor GQS scores (scores 1 and 2) and most videos (58%) achieved moderate or good scores (scores 3 and 4). Videos published after the onset of COVID-19 had a 70% lower chance of engagement than those published in pre-pandemic years (OR: 0.30; 95%CI: 0.12–0.74). Videos that targeted healthcare professionals were 72% less likely to achieve higher GQS scores, than those with an unidentified target audience (OR: 0.28; 95%CI: 0.10–0.75). The informational engagement of the videos showed fewer comments than likes/reactions. Most YouTube videos about the SUS had moderate or good global quality, which was associated with their period of publication and choice of target audience.

The present study aimed to investigate the prevalence of dissatisfaction with dental appearance among 24-year-old Brazilian adults and the associated factors in life course. A subsample (n = 720) of the 1982 Pelotas Birth Cohort in southern Brazil was investigated at the ages of 15 and 24 years using clinical (caries and periodontal) examinations and interviews. The outcome was dissatisfaction with dental appearance at the age of 24 years. Covariate variables included socioeconomic factors, oral health, and dissatisfaction with general appearance collected during different periods of life. Poisson regression models with robust variance were applied. The prevalence of dissatisfaction with dental appearance was 43.5% (95%CI: 39.8–47.1). Individuals with downward income mobility (PR = 1.22, 95%CI: 1.07–1.79) and those always poor (PR = 1.21, 95%CI: 1.00–1.57) presented a higher prevalence of dissatisfaction with their dental appearance even after oral health variables and dissatisfaction with general appearance were controlled for. Moderate/severe malocclusion at 15 years (PR = 1.34, 95%CI: 1.13–1.59), highest experience of untreated dental caries at 24 years (PR = 1.82, 95%CI: 1.46–2.27), and dental pain experience at 24 years (PR = 1.29, 95%CI: 1.22–1.75) were associated with the outcome. Also, the prevalence of dissatisfaction with dental appearance was 20% higher (PR = 1.20, 95%CI: 1.01–1.43) among those dissatisfied with their general appearance. Our findings demonstrated a high prevalence of dissatisfaction with dental appearance among young adults. Lifetime economic disadvantage and dental problems (malocclusion at 15 years, untreated dental caries at 24 years, and dental pain at 24 years) were associated with dissatisfaction with dental appearance among young adults.