Prevalencia de caries dental en niños de edad preescolar. Estudio comparativo realizado en las ciudades de Monterrey y Apodaca, N.L.

Tesis ( Maestría en Ciencias Odontológicas con Especialidad en Odontología Infantil) U.A.N.L.

Medición de la longitud de arco dental y su relación con el género y edad en niños de 3 a 6 años que acuden al Posgrado de Odontopediatría de la UANL.

Tesis (Maestría en Ciencias Odontológicas con Especialidad en Odontopediatría) UANL, 2010.

Prevalencia de caries dental en preescolares de tres estratos socioeconómicos.

Tesis (Maestría en Ciencias con Especialidad en Odontología Infantil) UANL, 2010.

Separación padre-hijo : elección de los padres durante la atención dental en la Clínica de Posgrado de Odontopediatría de la UANL.

Tesis (Maestría en Ciencias Odontológicas con Especialidad en Odontopediatría) UANL, 2011.

Conocimiento de los padres de niños preescolares acerca de la primera visita dental de sus hijos.

Tesis (Maestría en Ciencias Odontológicas con Orientación en Odontopediatría) UANL, 2012.

Presencia de helicobacter pylori en placa dental de la población infantil que acude al posgrado de Odontopediatría de la Facultad de Odontología de la U.A.N.L.

Tesis (Maestría en Ciencias Odontológicas con Especialidad en Odontopediatría) UANL, 2012.

Comparación de 3 sistemas de pulido en una resina de nanorelleno y su relación con la superficie del esmalte dental.

Tesis (Maestría en Odontología Avanzada) UANL, 2013.

Presencia de hábitos orales deformantes de la oclusión y maloclusión dental en una población escolar de 3°, 4° y 5° año de primaria en el área metropolitana de Monterrey.

Tesis (Maestría en Ciencias en Salud Pública) UANL, 2013.

Obesidad y sobrepeso como factor de riesgo para la caries dental en niños escolares de 6-12 años.

Tesis (Maestría en Ciencias en Salud Pública) UANL, 2013.

Funcionalidad familiar y su relación con la caries dental y la acumulación de placa dentobacteriana en niños.

Tesis (Maestría en Ciencias Odontológicas con orientación en Odontopediatría) UANL, 2014.

Citotoxicidad del aloe vera y el formocresol en células mesenquimales de pulpa dental.

Tesis (Maestría en Ciencias Odontológicas en el área de Odontopediatría) UANL, 2014.

Relación entre edad cronológica con los estadíos de maduración dental de Nolla.

Tesis (Maestría en Ciencias Odontológicas con especialidad en Ortodoncia) UANL, 2014.

Using Google Analytics to evaluate an email information literacy program for medical and dental students

Objectives: An email information literacy program has been effective for over a decade at Université de Montréal’s Health Library. Students periodically receive messages highlighting the content of guides on the library’s website. We wish to evaluate, using Google Analytics, the effects of the program on specific webpage statistics. Using the data collected, we may pinpoint popular guides as well as others that need improvement. Methods: In the program, first and second-year medical (MD) or dental (DMD) students receive eight bi-monthly email messages. The DMD mailing list also includes graduate students and professors. Enrollment to the program is optional for MDs, but mandatory for DMDs. Google Analytics (GA) profiles have been configured for the libraries websites to collect visitor statistics since June 2009. The GA Links Builder was used to design unique links specifically associated with the originating emails. This approach allowed us to gather information on guide usage, such as the visitor’s program of study, duration of page viewing, number of pages viewed per visit, as well as browsing data. We also followed the evolution of clicks on GA unique links over time, as we believed that users may keep the library's emails and refer to them to access specific information. Results: The proportion of students who actually clicked the email links was, on average, less than 5%. MD and DMD students behaved differently regarding guide views, number of pages visited and length of time on the site. The CINAHL guide was the most visited for DMD students whereas MD students consulted the Pharmaceutical information guide most often. We noted that some students visited referred guides several weeks after receiving messages, thus keeping them for future reference; browsing to additional pages on the library website was also frequent. Conclusion: The mitigated success of the program prompted us to directly survey students on the format, frequency and usefulness of messages. The information gathered from GA links as well as from the survey will allow us to redesign our web content and modify our email information literacy program so that messages are more attractive, timely and useful for students.

Spectroscopic Investigation of Tooth Caries and Demineralization

Dental caries persists to be the most predominant oral disease in spite of remarkable progress made during the past half- century to reduce its prevalence. Early diagnosis of carious lesions is an important factor in the prevention and management of dental caries. Conventional procedures for caries detection involve visual-tactile and radiographic examination, which is considered as “gold standard”. These techniques are subjective and are unable to detect the lesions until they are well advanced and involve about one-third of the thickness of enamel. Therefore, all these factors necessitate the need for the development of new techniques for early diagnosis of carious lesions. Researchers have been trying to develop various instruments based on optical spectroscopic techniques for detection of dental caries during the last two decades. These optical spectroscopic techniques facilitate noninvasive and real-time tissue characterization with reduced radiation exposure to patient, thereby improving the management of dental caries. Nonetheless, a costeffective optical system with adequate sensitivity and specificity for clinical use is still not realized and development of such a system is a challenging task.Two key techniques based on the optical properties of dental hard tissues are discussed in this current thesis, namely laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) and diffuse reflectance (DR) spectroscopy for detection of tooth caries and demineralization. The work described in this thesis is mainly of applied nature, focusing on the analysis of data from in vitro tooth samples and extending these results to diagnose dental caries in a clinical environment. The work mainly aims to improve and contribute to the contemporary research on fluorescence and diffuse reflectance for discriminating different stages of carious lesions. Towards this, a portable and compact laser-induced fluorescence and reflectance spectroscopic system (LIFRS) was developed for point monitoring of fluorescence and diffuse reflectance spectra from tooth samples. The LIFRS system uses either a 337 nm nitrogen laser or a 404 nm diode laser for the excitation of tooth autofluorescence and a white light source (tungsten halogen lamp) for measuring diffuse reflectance.Extensive in vitro studies were carried out on extracted tooth samples to test the applicability of LIFRS system for detecting dental caries, before being tested in a clinical environment. Both LIF and DR studies were performed for diagnosis of dental caries, but special emphasis was given for early detection and also to discriminate between different stages of carious lesions. Further the potential of LIFRS system in detecting demineralization and remineralization were also assessed.In the clinical trial on 105 patients, fluorescence reference standard (FRS) criteria was developed based on LIF spectral ratios (F500/F635 and F500/F680) to discriminate different stages of caries and for early detection of dental caries. The FRS ratio scatter plots developed showed better sensitivity and specificity as compared to clinical and radiographic examination, and the results were validated with the blindtests. Moreover, the LIF spectra were analyzed by curve-fitting using Gaussian spectral functions and the derived curve-fitted parameters such as peak position, Gaussian curve area, amplitude and width were found to be useful for distinguishing different stages of caries. In DR studies, a novel method was established based on DR ratios (R500/R700, R600/R700 and R650/R700) to detect dental caries with improved accuracy. Further the diagnostic accuracy of LIFRS system was evaluated in terms of sensitivity, specificity and area under the ROC curve. On the basis of these results, the LIFRS system was found useful as a valuable adjunct to the clinicians for detecting carious lesions.