Dentistry Commons^™

The Emerging Oral Pathogen, Filifactor Alocis, Modulates Antimicrobial Responses In Primed Human Neutrophils., Ian J. Snider

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

Periodontitis is an irreversible, chronic inflammatory, infectious disease of the oral cavity that affects approximately half of all adults 30 years or older in the USA. The oral cavity is under high immune surveillance because of its constant exposure to microbes in the environment. The primary immune cell responsible for this surveillance is the neutrophil. Pathogens associated with periodontitis possess virulence factors and have evolved strategies to evade neutrophil antimicrobial responses to survive. One such pathogen is Filifactor alocis, whose presence is associated with the progression of periodontitis. F. alocis manipulates several neutrophil antimicrobial functional responses to avoid killing, an …

Molar Macrowear As A Proxy For Age In A Captive Sample Of Papio Hamadryas, Lauren Conrad

Biological Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

This study is methods-focused, centering around molar crown macrowear and its performance as a proxy for age in a sample of pedigreed, non-human primates. It analyzes the correlation between age-structured variables and molar wear among both males and females in a captive group of baboons. Here, I examined whether wear is significantly correlated with age-related variables (i.e., generations/cohorts) and whether the structure of the “age” dataset differed across wear categories. Because chronological age is unknown, I used documented pedigrees and parent-offspring relationships to group individuals into possible generations. I then used dental development charts to group individuals into cohorts based …

Education, Beliefs, And Health Literacy Of Care Providers On Mouth Care Of Older Adults, Molly Lakin

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Oral health is important to one’s overall health and quality of life as it can lead to chronic illnesses such as cardiovascular disease, stroke, and neurodegenerative disorders (Haumschild et al. 2021). In long-term care facilities, it is important that dependent older adults are provided mouth care to maintain their oral health and decrease their chances of developing a chronic illness; however, there are barriers affecting the level, quality, and quantity of mouth care being provided in these facilities. A survey was developed to look at the education, beliefs, and health literacy of care providers on providing mouth care in hopes …

Oral Prevalence Of Akkermancia Muciniphila Among Pediatric And Adult Orthodontic And Non-Orthodontic Patients, Ching Shen

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Akkermansia muciniphila (AM) is one of many highly abundant intestinal microbes that influences homeostasis and metabolic disorders and may also play a role in oral disorders. However, there is little evidence regarding the oral prevalence of this organism. Based upon this lack of evidence, the primary goal of this project is to survey an existing saliva repository to determine the overall prevalence of this organism and any associations with demographic or patient characteristics (age, sex, body mass index, race/ethnicity, orthodontic therapy). Using an approved protocol, a total n = 141 pediatric samples from an existing saliva repository were screened using …

Ramsay Hunt Syndrome With Oral Findings: A Rare Case, İlknur Eninanç, Büşra Şahin

Journal of Dentistry Indonesia

Ramsay Hunt syndrome (RHS) is a disease that is caused by the varicella-zoster virus and is characterized by severe ear pain, auricular vesicular eruptions, and peripheral facial paralysis.

Objective: The aim of this case report is to provide information about the clinical findings and treatment process of RHS, which is a rare case and may have oral findings and stress the importance of early diagnosis.

Case Report: A 60-year-old male patient had previously consulted an otolaryngologist and a family physician with complaints of vesicular eruptions in the right ear auricle and on the mandible. The patient in whom a diagnosis …

The Effect Direction Should Be Taken Into Account When Assessing Small-Study Effects, Zhuo Meng, Chong Wu, Lifeng Lin

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

OBJECTIVE: Studies with statistically significant results are frequently more likely to be published than those with non-significant results. This phenomenon leads to publication bias or small-study effects and can seriously affect the validity of the conclusion from systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Small-study effects typically appear in a specific direction, depending on whether the outcome of interest is beneficial or harmful, but this direction is rarely taken into account in conventional methods.

METHODS: We propose to use directional tests to assess potential small-study effects. The tests are built on a one-sided testing framework based on the existing Egger's regression test. We …

Factors For Poor Oral Health In Long-Term Childhood Cancer Survivors, Tushar Patni, Chun-Teh Lee, Yimei Li, Sue Kaste, Liang Zhu, Ryan Sun, Melissa M Hudson, Kirsten K Ness, Ana Neumann, Leslie L Robison

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: Survivors of childhood cancer are at risk for therapy-related dental diseases. The purpose of the study was to investigate the associations between clinical, socioeconomic, and demographic factors and oral diseases in the St. Jude Lifetime Cohort (SJLIFE) participants.

Methods: We performed a retrospective medical chart review and evaluated longitudinal self-reported dental outcomes in 4856 childhood cancer survivors and 591 community controls participating in the St. Jude Lifetime Cohort (SJLIFE) study. Univariate and multivariable logistic regression models were used to assess the impact of socioeconomic factors, treatment exposures and patient demographics on dental outcomes.

Results: Cancer survivors were more likely …

Ageanno: A Knowledgebase Of Single-Cell Annotation Of Aging In Human, Kexin Huang, Hoaran Gong, Jingjing Guan, Lingxiao Zhang, Changbao Hu, Weiling Zhao, Liyu Huang, Wei Zhang, Pora Kim, Xiaobo Zhou

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Aging is a complex process that accompanied by molecular and cellular alterations. The identification of tissue-/cell type-specific biomarkers of aging and elucidation of the detailed biological mechanisms of aging-related genes at the single-cell level can help to understand the heterogeneous aging process and design targeted anti-aging therapeutics. Here, we built AgeAnno (https://relab.xidian.edu.cn/AgeAnno/#/), a knowledgebase of single cell annotation of aging in human, aiming to provide comprehensive characterizations for aging-related genes across diverse tissue-cell types in human by using single-cell RNA and ATAC sequencing data (scRNA and scATAC). The current version of AgeAnno houses 1 678 610 cells from 28 healthy …

Use Gpt-J Prompt Generation With Roberta For Ner Models On Diagnosis Extraction Of Periodontal Diagnosis From Electronic Dental Records, Yao-Shun Chuang, Xiaoqian Jiang, Chun-Teh Lee, Ryan Brandon, Duong Tran, Oluwabunmi Tokede, Muhammad F Walji

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

This study explored the usability of prompt generation on named entity recognition (NER) tasks and the performance in different settings of the prompt. The prompt generation by GPT-J models was utilized to directly test the gold standard as well as to generate the seed and further fed to the RoBERTa model with the spaCy package. In the direct test, a lower ratio of negative examples with higher numbers of examples in prompt achieved the best results with a F1 score of 0.72. The performance revealed consistency, 0.92-0.97 in the F1 score, in all settings after training with the RoBERTa model. …

Probing The Porphyromonas Gingivalis Nitrosative Stress Response Network, Alexandra Galina

Theses and Dissertations

Objective: To persist in the oral cavity, the perio-pathogen Porphyromonas gingivalis must have an efficient nitrosative stress response mechanism. To better understand how P. gingivalis responds to nitrite (NO₂^-) we must determine what genes are involved in the nitrosative stress response network.

Methods: Through genomic screening, a list of genes was generated that were hypothesized to be part of the nitrosative stress response network and believed to be involved in nitrate/nitrite metabolism or redox state of the cells. Protein coding regions were replaced with the ermF sequence by allelic exchange mutagenesis. 15 mutants were created …

Studying Gene Function In Streptococcus Sanguinis Using Rna-Sequencing Analysis, Ahmed Ismail

Theses and Dissertations

The oral cavity hosts hundreds of bacterial species, amongst them are the Streptococci family. More specifically, S. sanguinis is a benign bacteria in the oral cavity to protect the tooth surface from S. mutans. which is a pathogen causing dental caries. While S. sanguinis is harmless in the oral cavity, it becomes pathogenic once entering the bloodstream and causing Infective Endocarditis (IE). To further study S. sanguinis and eventually develop an effective drug to treat IE caused by S. sanguinis, a gene expression study was conducted. In order to study gene expression, RNA-sequencing was conducted, and appropriate methods to remove …

Dental Claires: Contrastive Language Image Retrieval Search For Dental Research, Tanjida Kabir, Luyao Chen, Muhammad F Walji, Luca Giancardo, Xiaoqian Jiang, Shayan Shams

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Learning about diagnostic features and related clinical information from dental radiographs is important for dental research. However, the lack of expert-annotated data and convenient search tools poses challenges. Our primary objective is to design a search tool that uses a user's query for oral-related research. The proposed framework,

Assessing The Most Vulnerable Subgroup To Type Ii Diabetes Associated With Statin Usage: Evidence From Electronic Health Record Data, Xinzhou Guo, Waverly Wei, Molei Liu, Tianxi Cai, Chong Wu, Jingshen Wang

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

There have been increased concerns that the use of statins, one of the most commonly prescribed drugs for treating coronary artery disease, is potentially associated with the increased risk of new-onset Type II diabetes (T2D). Nevertheless, to date, there is no robust evidence supporting as to whether and what kind of populations are indeed vulnerable for developing T2D after taking statins. In this case study, leveraging the biobank and electronic health record data in the Partner Health System, we introduce a new data analysis pipeline and a novel statistical methodology that address existing limitations by (i) designing a rigorous causal …

A Cell Culture Model To Study Tobacco Associated Oral Cancer Progression And Treatment Resistance, Amanda Busch

Theses & Dissertations

Head and Neck Squamous cell carcinoma is the 6^th most common cancer in the world. Risk factors for HNSCC include alcohol and tobacco consumption, infection with Human Papilloma Virus, and exposure to environmental toxins. Unlike many other cancers, the incidence of HNSCC is growing, yet the treatment options and outcomes have not been significantly improved for decades. An increased understanding of the molecular mechanisms of these cancers is needed for improvement in early diagnosis, enhanced treatment effectiveness, and cancer prevention. 4-nitroquinoline 1-oxide (4NQO) is a well-tested, tobacco mimicking, carcinogen. 4NQO produces similar histological and chemical changes found in human …

Massive Macroglossia, A Rare Side Effect Of Covid-19: Clinical, Histologic, And Genomic Findings In Covid-19-Positive Versus Covid-19-Negative Patients, Victoria A Mañón, David Chubb, Laura S Farach, Rachid Karam, Mary C Farach-Carson, Nadarajah Vigneswaran, Karan Saluja, Simon Young, Mark Wong, James C Melville

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

PURPOSE: The primary purpose of this study is to identify if there is an underlying genetic predisposition for COVID-related macroglossia and if this susceptibility is higher among individuals of African heritage. Secondary objectives include determining if genetic testing of COVID-infected patients who are intubated and prone could identify patients with higher susceptibility to the development of macroglossia.

METHODS: A retrospective chart review was completed for each patient, and prospectively, genetic and histopathologic analyses were completed. Whole-exome sequencing was completed on two patients; immunohistochemistry was completed on the COVID-positive tissue samples.

RESULTS: Histopathology of the COVID-positive patient revealed significant peri-lymphocytic infiltrate, …

The Fate Of Early Perichondrial Cells In Developing Bones, Yuki Matsushita, Angel Ka Yan Chu, Chiaki Tsutsumi-Arai, Shion Orikasa, Mizuki Nagata, Sunny Y Wong, Joshua D Welch, Wanida Ono, Noriaki Ono

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

In endochondral bone development, bone-forming osteoblasts and bone marrow stromal cells have dual origins in the fetal cartilage and its surrounding perichondrium. However, how early perichondrial cells distinctively contribute to developing bones remain unidentified. Here we show using in vivo cell-lineage analyses that Dlx5+ fetal perichondrial cells marked by Dlx5-creER do not generate cartilage but sustainably contribute to cortical bone and marrow stromal compartments in a manner complementary to fetal chondrocyte derivatives under the regulation of Hedgehog signaling. Postnatally, Dlx5+ fetal perichondrial cell derivatives preferentially populate the diaphyseal marrow stroma with a dormant adipocyte-biased state and are refractory to parathyroid …

Effect Of Selective Decontamination Of The Digestive Tract On Hospital Mortality In Critically Ill Patients Receiving Mechanical Ventilation: A Randomized Clinical Trial, The Suddicu Investigators For The Australian And New Zealand Intensive Care Society Clinical Trials Group, John A Myburgh, Ian M Seppelt, Fiona Goodman, Laurent Billot, Maryam Correa, Joshua S Davis, Anthony C Gordon, Naomi E Hammond, Jon Iredell, Qiang Li, Sharon Micallef, Jennene Miller, Jayanthi Mysore, Colman Taylor, Paul J Young, Brian H Cuthbertson, Simon R Finfer

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

IMPORTANCE: Whether selective decontamination of the digestive tract (SDD) reduces mortality in critically ill patients remains uncertain.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether SDD reduces in-hospital mortality in critically ill adults.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: A cluster, crossover, randomized clinical trial that recruited 5982 mechanically ventilated adults from 19 intensive care units (ICUs) in Australia between April 2018 and May 2021 (final follow-up, August 2021). A contemporaneous ecological assessment recruited 8599 patients from participating ICUs between May 2017 and August 2021.

INTERVENTIONS: ICUs were randomly assigned to adopt or not adopt a SDD strategy for 2 alternating 12-month periods, separated by a …

A Comprehensive Artificial Intelligence Framework For Dental Diagnosis And Charting, Tanjida Kabir, Chun-Teh Lee, Luyao Chen, Xiaoqian Jiang, Shayan Shams

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to develop artificial intelligence (AI) guided framework to recognize tooth numbers in panoramic and intraoral radiographs (periapical and bitewing) without prior domain knowledge and arrange the intraoral radiographs into a full mouth series (FMS) arrangement template. This model can be integrated with different diseases diagnosis models, such as periodontitis or caries, to facilitate clinical examinations and diagnoses.

METHODS: The framework utilized image segmentation models to generate the masks of bone area, tooth, and cementoenamel junction (CEJ) lines from intraoral radiographs. These masks were used to detect and extract teeth bounding boxes utilizing several …

Monkeypox: What Do Dental Professionals Need To Know?, Charifa Zemouri, Edgar O Beltrán, Richard Holliday, Nicholas S Jakubovics, James R Allison

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Infection control is critical for the safe delivery of dental care. Infection control practices must be responsive to emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases and outbreaks, as was clearly seen during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. An emerging global outbreak of the monkeypox virus has again raised potential challenges for infection control in dentistry. Monkeypox is an infectious disease, characterised by a rash affecting the skin and soft tissues, including the oral cavity. Previously, cases were mostly seen following contact with infected animals in Central and West Africa, with limited human-to-human transmission within and outside of these areas. However, since …

Phylogenetic Diversity Of Animal Oral And Gastrointestinal Viromes Useful In Surveillance Of Zoonoses, Anthony Michael Esposito, Michelle Marie Esposito, Albert Ptashnik

Publications and Research

Great emphasis has been placed on bacterial microbiomes in human and animal systems. In recent years, advances in metagenomics have allowed for the detection and characterization of more and more native viral particles also residing in these organisms. The digestive tracts of animals and humans—from the oral cavity, to the gut, to fecal excretions—have become one such area of interest. Next-generation sequencing and bioinformatic analyses have uncovered vast phylogenetic virome diversity in companion animals, such as dogs and cats, as well as farm animals and wildlife such as bats. Zoonotic and arthropod-borne illnesses remain major causes of worldwide outbreaks, as …

Development Of A Quality Improvement Dental Chart Review Training Program, Elsbeth Kalenderian, Nutan B Hebballi, Amy Franklin, Alfa Yansane, Ana M Ibarra Noriega, Joel White, Muhammad F Walji

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

INTRODUCTION: Chart review is central to understanding adverse events (AEs) in medicine. In this article, we describe the process and results of educating chart reviewers assigned to evaluate dental AEs.

METHODS: We developed a Web-based training program, "Dental Patient Safety Training," which uses both independent and consensus-based curricula, for identifying AEs recorded in electronic health records in the dental setting. Training included (1) didactic education, (2) skills training using videos and guided walkthroughs, (3) quizzes with feedback, and (4) hands-on learning exercises. In addition, novice reviewers were coached weekly during consensus review discussions. TeamExpert was composed of 2 experienced reviewers, …

Advances In Head And Neck Cancer Pain, Y Ye, D D Jensen, C T Viet, H L Pan, W M Campana, M Amit, M D Boada

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Head and neck cancer (HNC) affects over 890,000 people annually worldwide and has a mortality rate of 50%. Aside from poor survival, HNC pain impairs eating, drinking, and talking in patients, severely reducing quality of life. Different pain phenotype in patients (allodynia, hyperalgesia, and spontaneous pain) results from a combination of anatomical, histopathological, and molecular differences between cancers. Poor pathologic features (e.g., perineural invasion, lymph node metastasis) are associated with increased pain. The use of syngeneic/immunocompetent animal models, as well as a new mouse model of perineural invasion, provides novel insights into the pathobiology of HNC pain. Glial and immune …

An Observational Retrospective Study Of Adverse Events And Behavioral Outcomes During Pediatric Dental Sedation, Kawtar Zouaidi, Gregory Olson, Helen H Lee, Elsbeth Kalenderian, Muhammad F Walji

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine a university-based dental electronic health records (EHR) database to identify sedation-related adverse events (AEs) and assess patients' behavioral outcomes during routine pediatric dental sedations (PDSs) in a dental school clinic.

Methods: A database was screened for patients younger than 18 years old who had received dental sedation in 2019. The qualifying EHRs were then accessed and sedations were reviewed for AEs, which were categorized using a 12-point classification system and the Tracking and Reporting Outcomes of Procedural Sedation Tool. Patient behaviors were assessed using provider progress notes and categorized as presence/ …

Quantification Of Dental Fissures Through Occlusal Topography Analysis, Duru Erkan

Biological Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

Narrow, deep, and elaborate dental fissures are widely believed to increase the predisposition of enamel to develop carious lesions as these surfaces are thought to be ideal for cariogenic bacteria to adhere to. Therefore, dentists prescribe sealants as a preventative measure for patients with such fissures to avoid tooth decay. Yet to date, there is no objective data supporting the notion that fissure morphology actually affects caries susceptibility, nor is there a quantifiable, clinically practical method to characterize fissure patterns expected to increase risk of caries disease.

In this study, three new methods to quantitatively characterize fissure pattern in mandibular …

Aggregatibacter Actinomycetemcomitans Exploits And Modulates The Immune Response By Human Neutrophils For Survival In The Anaerobic Environment., Hazel Ozuna

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans (Aa) is a Gram-negative facultative anaerobe and an opportunistic oral pathogen, strongly associated with localized periodontitis and other inflammatory diseases. Periodontitis is a chronic inflammation of the periodontium resulting from the inflammatory response of the host towards the dysbiotic microbial community present at the gingival crevice. The host immune response creates a hostile environment for microorganisms; therefore, it is important for Aa to be able to regulate the necessary genes to survive and thrive in such an environment. Aaexpresses several virulence factors such as a cytolethal distending toxin (Cdt), lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and leukotoxin A (LtxA), …

The Effect Of Attachment Design And Aligner Material On The Efficiency Of Maxillary Canine Distalization In Premolar Extraction Cases, Najem Anbari

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Background: Clear Aligner Therapy (CAT) is regarded as a popular esthetic alternative to conventional orthodontic treatment with fixed labial appliances. The mechanism of action, force delivery and limitation of this treatment modality remain largely unknown despite its popularity, the high demand and the relatively long evolutionary track of clear aligners. There are only few studies that addressed the elements that influence the efficiency of clear aligners, namely, the attachment design and aligner materials. It is widely believed that clear aligners are not suitable for extraction cases due to their lack of control over the root movement.

Objectives: This in vitro …

The Effect Of Cognitive Status And Residency On Oral Health In Patients With Dementia, Nicole Stephens

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Poor oral health is a predictor of cognitive decline in elderly populations and has been shown to precede dementia. As cognitive decline progresses, patients are likely to move from the community into nursing facilities. We hypothesize that severity of dementia and residency type will impact the oral health of patients with dementia. Fifty-two participants of two dementia levels were recruited from the UTHealth Neurocognitive Disorders Center and two Houston-area nursing homes. A standardized oral health assessment, plaque index, and oral bacteria analysis determined participants’ oral health status. Further, data was collected on participants’ medical history, oral hygiene habits, dietary habits, …

Heritability Of Maxillary Dental Arch Dimensions In A Pedigreed Sample Of Hamadryas Baboons, Samuel Park

Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis presents a study of heritability of maxillary dental arch dimensions in a captive baboon colony. Arch dimensions are important subject because they influence the entirety of the craniofacial and masticatory complex. The goal of this study was to quantify the relative genetic influence on arch dimensions and the nature of this influence at different points along the maxillary arcade. Referencing virtual, three-dimensional dental cast scans, widths were measured at different points between the a) maxillary left and right canines, and b) maxillary left and right first molars (M1). Specifically, measurements were taken at the inner (lingual) gingival margin, …

Differential Expression Of Cellular And Exosomal Microrna Isolated From Oral Cancer Cells And Their Resistance To Chemotherapy, Brady Petersen

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Introduction: MicroRNAs are abundant small non-coding RNA with a variety of known functions, including transcriptional activation and inhibition. Recent evidence has suggested that microRNA expression may influence the responsiveness of some cancers to chemotherapy, including liver and lung cancers. Some evidence has now suggested that specific microRNAs, such as miR-21, miR-155, and miR-375, may influence oral cancer responsiveness to chemotherapy – although much remains to be discovered.

Objective: Based upon the lack of evidence in this area, the primary objective of this study was to evaluate microRNA expression and responsiveness among oral cancers.

Methods: Five commercially available oral cancer cell …

Meta-Analysis Of Two Rnaseq Datasets To Determine Diagnostic Biomarkers And Drug Target Candidates For Periodontitis, Carlos Moreno

Annual Research Symposium

No abstract provided.