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Streptococcus mutans (S. mutans) is known as the causative bacteria in the formation of dental plaque and dental caries. The aim of this experiment was to investigate the effects of Cyperus rotundus (C. rotundus) tuber extract on the growth, acid production, adhesion, and water-insoluble glucan synthesis of S. mutans. The growth and acid production were reduced by the extract of C. rotundus in a dose dependent manner. The extract of C. rotundus markedly inhibited the adherence of S. mutans to saliva-coated hydroxyapatite beads (HAs). The adherence was repressed by more than 50% at the concentration of 0.5 mg/ml of the extract and complete inhibition was observed at the concentration of 4 mg/ml of the extract. On the activity of glucosyltransferase (GTFase) which synthesizes water-insoluble glucan from sucrose, the extract of C. rotundus showed more than 10% inhibition at a concentration of 2 mg/ml. These results suggest that C. rotundus may inhibit cariogenic properties of S. mutans. Further studies are necessary to clarify the active constituents of C. rotundus responsible for such biomolecular activities.

Withania somnifera (Ashwagandha) is a plant of the Solanaceae family. It has been widely used as a remedy for a variety of ailments in India and Nepal. The plant has also been used as a controlling agent for dental diseases. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the activity of the methanol extract of W. somnifera against the physiological ability of cariogenic biofilms and to identify the components of the extract. To determine the activity of the extract, assays for sucrose-dependent bacterial adherence, glycolytic acid production, acid tolerance, and extracellular polysaccharide formation were performed using Streptococcus mutans biofilms. The viability change of S. mutans biofilms cells was also determined. A phytochemical analysis of the extract was performed using TLC and LC/MS/MS. The extract showed inhibitory effects on sucrose-dependent bacterial adherence (≥ 100 μg/ml), glycolytic acid production (≥ 300 μg/ml), acid tolerance (≥ 300 μg/ml), and extracellular polysaccharide formation (≥ 300 μg/ml) of S. mutans biofilms. However, the extract did not alter the viability of S. mutans biofilms cells in all concentrations tested. Based on the phytochemical analysis, the activity of the extract may be related to the presence of alkaloids, anthrones, coumarines, anthraquinones, terpenoids, flavonoids, and steroid lactones (withanolide A, withaferin A, withanolide B, withanoside IV, and 12-deoxy withastramonolide). These data indicate that W. somnifera may be a potential agent for restraining the physiological ability of cariogenic biofilms.

Getting to the root of the problem.

Millions of newborn infants in Western Pacific still at risk.

Deciphering molecular clues to paediatric urinary tract infection.

In order to investigate and analyze the caries status of permanent first molars (PFMs) in children aged 10 to 12 years in Southern China and to analyze the related factors, from January to August 2019, a multi-stage, stratified, cluster, and random sampling method had been used to select 6208 children from 22 schools in Guangzhou city for oral health examinations and questionnaires. The total caries rate of the PFMs was 39.40%, total DMFT score was $0.85\pm 0.28$, the filling rate of caries was 3.38%, and the rate of fissure sealant was 5.89%. The percentage of PFM caries was statistically significant between female and boys, urban and rural areas, only-children and non-only children, and between ethnic minorities and Han ethnic groups ($P<0.05$). The difference between urban and rural areas was statistically significant ($P<0.05$). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the number of daily toothbrushes, the number of desserts eaten, milk drinking before bedtime, being the only-child, and the parents’ level of education were the independents influencing the factors of for developing dental caries. The incidence of dental caries in the PFMs of children aged 10–12 years in Southern China is high, and the rate of fissure sealant and the rate of dental fillings are low. There are a lot of differences between urban and rural areas, where children’s oral health knowledge is poor, and poor oral hygiene behaviors and dietary habits exist.

Dental disease evaluation and clinical assessment are frequently accomplished through radiographic penetration. The difficulty of obtaining an accurate clinical diagnosis from radiographs rises due to the minimal mineral density change in demineralized tissue of tooth and gum disorders. Dental abnormalities may not be visible on radiographs until the demineralization is higher than 40%, according to the literature. As a result, a dental practitioner’s judgment can have a big impact on how accurately the radiography penetration depth is determined through visual inspection. To counteract this effect, image processing-based clinical diagnosis methods have become widely adopted, transforming dentistry from traditional to advance in recent years. The efforts made in the area of image processing-based digital dental diagnosis of the most challenging dental issues are outlined in the presented comprehensive literature evaluation, which also identifies any research gaps in the scope of work already done. The included studies’ quality was evaluated using Quality Assessment and Diagnostic Accuracy Tool-2 (QUADAS-2). A total of 52 out of 178 articles, published from 2012 to February 2023, were reviewed and data like image-processing approach, the size of datasets, approach results, advantages and disadvantages, name(s) of diagnosed diseases, imaging type, author, and publication year were extracted. Results show that, in 52 studies, more than 14 image-processing approaches were used on different types of radiographs for the diagnosis of a single or more than one disease by a single approach with an accuracy range from 64% to 93%. Most studies have used artificial intelligence (AI) for computer-aided diagnosis and used dental experts to label their dataset and validate the outcome of proposed methods. Efforts done by different research groups for image processing-based digital diagnosis are appreciable but still, they are lagging to meet clinically expected accuracy. There looks to be a great requirement for the development or standardization of existing methodology and it is also needed to construct standard public dental datasets to attract a greater number of research groups in the dental field.