OBJECTIVE: This study aims to explore dentists\' knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions regarding antibiotic use.
METHODS: We conducted a systematic review of dentists\' knowledge, attitudes and perceptions regarding antibiotic use, by searching the MEDLINE, EMBASE and Web of Science for all original paper published from January 1990 to July 2023, in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA 2020) guidelines.
RESULTS: The review included 37 papers, (7 qualitative and 30 quantitative studies). Modifiable factors (knowledge, attitudes) were reported as being associated with antibiotic prescribing by dentists which were cited in 30 of the 37. These attitudes most frequently identified by dentists were: complacency (22/29); lack of trust (16/29); the need to postpone the dental procedure (17/29); and fear (8/29). Gaps in knowledge were also identified (15/29). Only one of the included articles quantified the influence between the reported modifiable factors and antibiotic prescribing.
CONCLUSIONS: The review emphasizes that dentists\' antibiotic prescribing is predominantly influenced by modifiable factors. This insight informs the potential for targeted interventions to curtail inappropriate antibiotic use, contributing to global efforts in reducing antibiotic resistance. The protocol of this systematic review can be found in PROSPERO under registration no. CRD42021253937.

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has inundated the whole world by causing severe acute respiratory syndrome in humans, thus posing serious public health concerns. The oral and olfactory systems are significantly impacted by the COVID-19 condition, in addition to the respiratory and digestive systems. Oral symptoms of COVID-19 can be caused by a loss in oral hygiene, immune system suppression, a decline in general health, and candidiasis due to prolonged antibiotic use. Because many aerosols and droplets are produced during various dental operations, dental professionals and dentists are at a significant risk of contracting the COVID-19 infection. Few precautionary measures include performing a pre-appointment health screening for all patients, performing aerosol-producing procedures in a designated space or operatory, using proper personal protective equipment and disinfecting the operatory between patients, and limiting the number of dental procedures at one time. Against this background, the purposes of this article are to explore the oral presentations of COVID-19 infection and to emphasize the hazards to dental professionals during COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, few preventive measures are also highlighted.

UNASSIGNED: The dentist and auxiliary personnel are in constant risk of occupational diseases such as: allergies, infections, skin or eye injuries; that could affect patients. A problem of social interest are the ocular injuries that occur to dental personnel. The literature reveals the prevalence of eye injuries in dental practice that are associated with solid particles, fluid splashes. Our objective was, through a systematic review, to review the types of ocular injuries and their associated factors that occurred in dental practice.
UNASSIGNED: The relevant studies were searched in the databases: PubMed, Scopus, Ebsco, among others. The search included cross-sectional studies that evaluated the evidence on ocular injuries occurring in dental practice, excluding literature reviews, letters to the reader, and editorials.
UNASSIGNED: Eight studies were included to develop the systematic review; determining that the associated factors of ocular injuries occurred in dental practice are: a) occasional use of ocular protection b) age c) sex d) years of practice and the types of ocular injuries are the entry of liquids and foreign bodies.
UNASSIGNED: Deficiency in compliance with eye or facial protection protocols in dental practice, cause eye injuries; Type of fluid entry, foreign bodies, splash of biological fluids or conjunctivitis. These eye injuries are generated from associated factors such as the occasional use of eye protection, age, sex, and others.

BACKGROUND: Child maltreatment, the abuse or neglect of children aged 0-18 years, is a severe and underreported global problem. Compared with other body parts, the orofacial region displays more signs of child maltreatment. Dentists and dental hygienists are therefore well situated to identify orofacial signs of child maltreatment.
OBJECTIVE: To map the current literature on orofacial signs of child maltreatment identified by dentists or dental hygienists.
METHODS: A scoping review was conducted based on systematic searches of Medline (Ovid), Embase (Ovid), and CINAHL (EBSCOhost) for primary qualitative and quantitative studies through June 6, 2022.
RESULTS: Twenty-nine studies were included in this scoping review. Though all child maltreatment types were identified in dental settings, physical abuse and dental neglect were most commonly identified. Reports of caries dominated the orofacial signs, followed by bruises (intra- and extraoral), poor oral hygiene, dental trauma, and lacerations (intra- and extraoral). Case reports were used most commonly to describe orofacial signs of child maltreatment.
CONCLUSIONS: Dental clinicians identify orofacial signs of all child maltreatment types intraorally. Dentists identify the same extraoral signs as do other healthcare professionals, with bruising being the most common.

2-Hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) has been increasingly recognised as a contact allergen and was added to the European baseline series in 2019. In this article (2 parts), the results of an extensive literature review of the clinical aspects of contact allergy/allergic contact dermatitis to HEMA are presented. In part 1, the epidemiology of HEMA contact allergy is discussed and detailed information on published case series and case reports presented. HEMA is an important cause of contact allergy/allergic contact dermatitis in North America and Europe with recent prevalences of >3% in the USA + Canada and 1.5%-3.7% in Europe. Currently, most cases are caused by nail cosmetics, both in consumers and professional nail stylists. In our literature review, we have found 24 studies presenting case series of patients with allergic contact dermatitis attributed to HEMA and 168 case reports. However, the presence of HEMA in the products causing ACD was established in only a minority. Part 2 will discuss cross- and co-sensitisation, and other skin reactions to HEMA, will assess whether HEMA is the most frequent (meth)acrylate allergen and how sensitive HEMA as a screening agent is, investigate the presence of HEMA in commercial products and provide practical information on patch testing procedures.

Background: Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) is one such common disorder among dental health care personnel caused due to the entrapment neuropathy of the median nerve in the carpal tunnel. We aimed to evaluate the pooled estimates of the CTS among dental healthcare personnel. Methods: We systematically reviewed the existing literature from six databases till January 1 st, 2022. Studies reported in English along with the prevalence of CTS or where prevalence could be calculated were included. Independent screening of title and abstracts, and the full text was done by two examiners. Information collected was authors, year of publication, geographic location, type of dental healthcare personnel, sample size, distribution of age, sex, CTS, method of diagnosis, and risk of bias. The random effect model was used to estimate the pooled estimates. Results: Thirty-seven studies yielded 38 estimates. A total of 17,152 dental health care personnel were included of which 2717 had CTS. The overall pooled prevalence of CTS among the included studies was 15%, with a high heterogeneity. Meta-analysis showed no significant difference in the pooled estimates of CTS between male and female dental healthcare personnel (OR: 0.73; 95% CI: 0.52 -1.02; I 2= 69.71). The pooled estimates among the dentist and dental auxiliaries were 20% and 10%, respectively. The pooled prevalence of CTS with self-reported measures, clinical examination and NCS were 21%, 13% and 8% respectively. Meta-regression showed that the prevalence estimates were significantly associated with publication year (coefficient: 0.006; 95% CI= 0.002-0.01). Conclusion: One out of seven dental health care personnel may be affected by CTS. No significant difference was seen in the prevalence of CTS between male and female dental healthcare personnel.

BACKGROUND: There is growing literature on the potential of digital technologies for improving access to, ensuring continuity and quality of health care, and to strengthen health systems. Some studies have reported the cost-effectiveness of teledentistry, its reliability for remote dental screening, diagnosis, consultation, and treatment planning. Nonetheless, current evidence suggests that teledentistry implementation faces many challenges and is not yet adopted by dental health care providers (DHCPs). Developing strategies to improve teledentistry adoption requires an understanding of the factors that promote or hinder its successful implementation.
OBJECTIVE: This systematic review aims to identify and synthetize barriers and enablers to implementing teledentistry as perceived by DHCPs in their clinical practices, using the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF) and the Capacity, Opportunity, and Motivation Behavior (COM-B) model.
METHODS: This protocol follows the PRISMA-P (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Protocols) checklist. Literature will be searched in the following databases: PubMed, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, CINAHL, Embase, and PsycINFO. We will perform additional searches on Google, Google Scholar, and ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global, screen the references of the included studies to capture additional relevant studies, and contact the authors of studies if we need more details. We will consider studies using qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods. There will be no restrictions on the publication date and dental setting. We will include studies published in French, English, and Portuguese. Two independent reviewers will select the study, extract data, and assess methodological quality using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool\'s checklist. Data analysis will include a descriptive and a thematic content analysis. We will synthetize and categorize the barriers and enablers using the TDF and COM-B model and present a narrative synthesis of our results using tables, figures, and quotes.
RESULTS: By March 2023, the literature search has retrieved 7355 publications. We will identify the range of barriers and enablers to implementing teledentistry through DHCPs\' perspectives. Considering the critical need for theory-based implementation interventions to improve the use of evidence-informed practices, we will synthesize the factors influencing the adoption of teledentistry based on the TDF domains and the 3 essential conditions predicting behavior change in accordance with the COM-B model. As needed, we will include additional determinants if not included in the TDF. We will conduct some subgroups analyses if studies are sufficient. We expect to complete the review by July 2024.
CONCLUSIONS: This review will provide some insights on the determinants of teledentistry implementation as perceived by DHCPs in dental settings. These findings will cater to patients, families, DHCPs, researchers, academic and professional decision-makers, and policy makers. The results of the systematic review could be used to develop theory-led interventions in improving teledentistry implementation.
BACKGROUND: PROSPERO CRD42021293376; https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?RecordID=293376.
UNASSIGNED: PRR1-10.2196/44218.

An artificial intelligence (AI) program called ChatGPT that generates text in response to typed commands has proven to be highly popular, as evidenced by the fact that OpenAI makes it available online. The goal of the present investigation was to investigate ChatGPT\'s potential applications as an outstanding instance of large language models (LLMs) in the fields of public dental health schooling, writing for academic use, research in public dental health, and clinical practice in public dental health based on the available data. Importantly, the goals of the current review included locating any drawbacks and issues that might be connected to using ChatGPT in the previously mentioned contexts in healthcare settings. Using search phrases including chatGPT, implications, artificial intelligence (AI), public health dentistry, public health, practice in public health dentistry, education in public health dentistry, academic writing in public health dentistry, etc., a thorough search was carried out on the Pubmed database, the Embase database, the Ovid database, the Global Health database, PsycINFO, and the Web of Science. The dates of publication were not restricted. Systematic searches were carried out for all publications according to inclusion and exclusion criteria between March 31, 2018, and March 31, 2023. Eighty-four papers were obtained through a literature search using search terms. Sixteen similar and duplicate papers were excluded and 68 distinct articles were initially selected. Thirty-three articles were excluded after reviewing abstracts and titles. Thirty-five papers were selected, for which full text was managed. Four extra papers were found manually from references. Thirty-nine articles with full texts were eligible for the study. Eighteen inadequate articles are excluded from the final 21 studies that were finally selected for systemic review. According to previously published studies, ChatGPT has demonstrated its effectiveness in helping scholars with the authoring of scientific research and dental studies. If the right structures are created, ChatGPT can offer suitable responses and more time to concentrate on the phase of experimentation for scientists. Risks include prejudice in the training data, undervaluing human skills, the possibility of fraud in science, as well as legal and reproducibility concerns. It was concluded that practice considering ChatGPT\'s potential significance, the research\'s uniqueness, and the premise-the activity of the human brain-remains. While there is no question about the superiority of incorporating ChatGPT into the practice of public health dentistry, it does not, in any way, take the place of a dentist since clinical practice involves more than just making diagnoses; it also involves relating to clinical findings and providing individualized patient care. Even though AI can be useful in a number of ways, a dentist must ultimately make the decision because dentistry is a field that involves several disciplines.

Botulinum toxin (BoNT) is an anaerobic rod-shaped-neurotoxin produced by Clostridium botulinum, that has both therapeutic and lethal applications. BoNT injection is the most popular cosmetic procedure worldwide with various applications. Patients with dynamic wrinkles in areas such as the glabella, forehead, peri-orbital lines, nasal rhytides, and perioral rhytides are indicated. Excessive contraction of muscles or hyperactivity of specific muscles such as bulky masseters, cobble stone chins, gummy smiles, asymmetric smiles, and depressed mouth corners can achieve esthetic results by targeting the precise muscles. Patients with hypertrophic submandibular glands and parotid glands can also benefit esthetically. There are several FDA-approved BoNTs (obabotuli-numtoxinA, abobotulinumtoxinA, incobotulinumtoxinA, letibotulinumtoxinA, prabotulinumtox-inA, daxibotulinumtoxinA, rimbotulinumtoxinB) and novel BoNTs on the market. This paper is a narrative review of the consensus statements of expert practitioners and various literature on the injection points and techniques, highlighting both the Asian and Caucasian population separately. This paper can serve as a practical illustrative guide and reference for optimal, safe injection areas and effective doses for application of BoNT in the face and oral and maxillofacial area. The history of BoNT indications, contraindications, and complications, and the merits of ultrasonography (US)-assisted injections are also discussed.

Tobacco use has detrimental effects on health, including oral health. The emergence and increasing popularity of newer tobacco and nicotine products make tobacco use one of the major public health problems in the world. Tobacco use increases the risk of oral diseases such as oral cancer, oral mucosal lesions, periodontal disease, and dental caries, among many other oral diseases and conditions. The dental office is an excellent venue for providing cessation intervention. However, there is a lack of knowledge and training in tobacco use prevention among dental professionals. More efforts are needed for smoking cessation interventions in the dental office. Smoking cessation interventions provided by oral healthcare providers include brief educational, behavioral, and pharmacological interventions. This review provides an overview of the ill effects of tobacco use on oral health and the role of oral healthcare providers in managing and preventing tobacco dependence.