Purpose: The social distancing mandates instituted during COVID-19 pandemic mark the sudden transition in the mode of dental education’s delivery to the virtual instruction. It is vital to assess students’ perceptions towards virtual learning environments, particularly among those gaining education in resource-strained countries. This cross-sectional study aims to assess the perceptions of dental undergraduates towards online education, environment and transferable skills and patient care during COVID-19 in India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. Materials and Methods: Dental preclinical and clinical undergraduate students from India, Nepal and Sri Lanka were recruited from November 2020 to March 2021 through a 47-item web-based survey consisting of psychometrically valid subscales of Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure (DREEM) and Transferable Skills Questionnaire. The mean scores of students’ perceptions of learning, environment, and patient care skills were compared among preclinical and clinical students of the participating countries. Results: Of total 930 participants, 44.4% were from India, 26.1% from Sri Lanka and 29.5% responses from Nepal. Sri Lanka reported the highest mean scores across all domains of perception indicative of positive attitude. Clinical students from all participating countries had statistically significantly higher positive perception of transferable skills in patient care as opposed to their preclinical counterparts. On the contrary, perception towards learning was higher among preclinical students as opposed to clinical students. These differences were statistically significant for Nepal and Sri Lanka. Conclusion: The findings of this study underscore the need to develop and implement effective online dental educational interventions to foster academic growth and essential practical skills without compromising academic rigor and continuity in the dental education curriculum.

Dental diseases are one of the most common diseases that affect humans. Clinicians employ several techniques for diagnosing and monitoring dental diseases, with intra-oral periapical (IOPA) radiographs being among the most commonly utilized methods. The development of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies for analyzing oral radiographs is being explored across various imaging modalities. However, the limited availability of publicly accessible datasets has been a significant challenge. Although datasets of dental radiographs are available, most of these datasets contain panoramic radiographs with teeth segmentation only. This new data set includes IOPA radiographs with annotations of important landmarks along with tooth segmentation. The dataset includes 1000 images with marked landmarks, along with metadata. Researchers can leverage this resource to create AI solutions for analyzing IOPA radiographs.

Background and Aims: The use of lasers has been increasing in various surgical procedures. Its specific characteristics have conquered the scalpel used to a major extent in certain surgical procedures. This scoping review aimed to assess the empirical evidence that exists on the quality of life (QoL) of dental patients treated with laser surgery.Methods: This scoping review was conducted in accordance with the Arksey and O'Malley's guidelines for scoping reviews. Four electronic databases (PubMed, SCOPUS, CINAHL Complete, and APA PsycInfo) were systematically searched through a stepwise approach, informed by the PEO (Population [P], Exposure [E], and Outcome [O]) framework, to retrieve literatures relevant to the review question. After a two‐staged and Rayyan‐aided screening process, only those literatures meeting the inclusion criteria were included into the review. From the included literatures, data were extracted, collated, summarized, and presented.Results: The literature search retrieved 246 articles, of which only 10 articles were selected according to the inclusion criteria. Five of the studies were from the United Kingdom and three were from Italy. Study designs were either cohort (60%) or randomized controlled trials (40%). A vast variation was observed in the study populations. The used QoL instruments were mostly disease/condition‐specific and oral cancer was the most reported disease in the included articles. The patients who underwent laser surgery had better QoL on the 7th day postoperatively, although it was not significant in later days.Conclusion: Depending on the indication, Laser is a safe surgical approach that could enhance the clinical outcome as well as the QoL of dental patients. Laser effects were more significant in the domain of postoperative pain. Due to the limited number of studies evaluated in this review, further longitudinal studies are needed to corroborate the findings of this review.

This report describes a case of proliferative verrucous leukoplakia (PVL) of the gingiva with no discernible aetiology, which presented in a 36‐year‐old female. The initial nonscrapable gingival lesion was treated with CO ₂ laser ablation, and the histopathological evaluation was carried out. The presence of koilocytic cells in the superficial epithelium led to immunohistochemical investigations with p16 antibody, which showed strong nuclear positivity and slight cytoplasmic positivity in >50% of the cells with >25% confluency. However, it was not possible to confirm the presence of HPV infection with further investigations due to logistic reasons. The lesion recurred twice within a short time despite the surgical resection following the first recurrence. Thus, this paper presents a case of proliferative verrucous leukoplakia, which demonstrated a significant resistance to routine treatment protocols recommended in the management of such lesions.

Maintaining oral health has become a major concern in preserving overall well-being and nutritional quality of life among older adults. The tooth loss is h