Background: Dental anxiety often poses a significant barrier to effective dental care in pediatric patients. This study evaluated the efficacy and safety of oral midazolam at two different doses for sedation and amnesia in preschool children undergoing dental procedures under 30 min, including primary teeth extraction, root canal treatment, dental filling, and stainless-steel crown. Methods: This prospective, double-blind, randomized controlled trial included 80 children aged 3–6 years with dental anxiety (Types 1 and 2 of the Frankl Behavior Rating Scale) at the National Hospital of Odonto-Stomatology, Hanoi. following the CONSORT guidelines. Participants were randomly assigned to receive oral midazolam at 0.3 mg/kg or 0.6 mg/kg. Sedation efficacy, onset time, procedure duration, cooperation level (Houpt Behavior Rating Scale), recovery time, and amnesia at 12 h, 24 h, and 1 week, as well as adverse events, were recorded and analyzed. Results: Both midazolam doses were effective for sedation (0.3 mg/kg: 95% vs. 0.6 mg/kg: 100%, p = 0.49). The higher dose (0.6 mg/kg) provided significantly longer effective procedural time (27.3 ± 4.1 min vs. 20.3 ± 4.0 min, p < 0.001) and better patient cooperation (95% vs. 78.9%, p = 0.045), but slightly prolonged recovery time (34.6 ± 4.6 min vs. 31.8 ± 4.4 min, p = 0.008). Both doses produced similar amnesic effects, with approximately 90% anterograde amnesia at 12 h post-procedure. Adverse events were minimal and mild. Conclusions: Both 0.3 mg/kg and 0.6 mg/kg doses of oral midazolam are safe and effective for sedation and amnesia in preschool children undergoing dental procedures. While the 0.6 mg/kg dose provides better procedural cooperation and prolonged sedation, it also requires a slightly longer recovery time.

This report highlights the long-term management of velopharyngeal insufficiency (VPI) and misarticulation in an 18-year-old male with unilateral cleft lip and palate. Despite primary and secondary surgeries, persistent VPI required a speech appliance and intensive therapy to address glottal stops and pharyngeal fricatives. While therapy eliminated these errors, residual VPI continued to impact speech intelligibility. Reassessment revealed that while some misarticulations persisted , the patient retained speech improvements from prior therapy , allowing for partial substitutions of target sounds . This case emphasizes the role of speech therapy in managing misarticulation despite unresolved VPI and highlights the need for ongoing multidisciplinary care.

Background/Objectives: Non-syndromic cleft lip with or without palate (NSCL/P) is a common, multifactorial congenital anomaly. As genetic associations can be population-specific, this study aimed to investigate single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the VAX1, MAFB, and WNT3 genes for association with NSCL/P in a Japanese cohort. Methods: A case–control study was conducted with 310 Japanese patients with NSCL/P and 308 ethnically matched healthy controls from Aichi Gakuin Dental Hospital. We genotyped SNPs rs7078160 (VAX1), rs13041247 (MAFB), and rs3809857 (WNT3) using TaqMan assays. Associations were assessed using chi-squared tests, with results stratified by sex and corrected for multiple comparisons using the Bonferroni method. Results: The VAX1 rs7078160 A allele was significantly associated with an increased risk for NSCL/P (OR = 1.67, p < 0.00001). The association was particularly strong in females (OR = 1.93, p < 0.00001) but not significant in males after correction. The MAFB rs13041247 variant showed a nominal protective association with the NSCLO subtype that was not significant after Bonferroni correction. No significant association was found for WNT3. A notable gene–gene interaction was observed, where carrying risk alleles for both VAX1 and MAFB significantly increased overall NSCL/P risk (OR = 2.65, p = 0.00008). Conclusions: VAX1 rs7078160 is a significant risk factor for NSCL/P in the Japanese population, with a pronounced female-specific effect. A synergistic interaction between VAX1 and MAFB elevates disease risk, whereas WNT3 was not implicated in this cohort. These findings underscore the population-specific genetic architecture of NSCL/P.

Background: Non-syndromic orofacial clefts (NSOFCs) are one of the common congenital malformations in Vietnam, with 1.4 per 1000 live births, with notable sex differences in occurrence. This case–control study aims to investigate potential sex-specific interactions of WNT3 and NOG polymorphisms across NSOFC subtypes in a Vietnamese population. Methods: A total of 720 participants were separated into 4 groups with a male/female ratio of 1:1 (160 individuals with cleft lip and palate (NSCLP), 160 with cleft lip only (NSCLO), 160 with cleft palate only (NSCPO), 240 healthy controls). Two single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), rs3809857 and rs227731, were genotyped by using the StepOnePlus Real-Time PCR System. Results: The most significant findings were found in the male NSCLO group under a recessive model of WNT3 rs3809857 after applying Bonferroni correction, as a five-fold protective factor with OR = 0.18 (95% confidence interval: 0.05–0.64, p = 0.0033). Additionally, the weak or moderate protective association between rs3809857 and male NSCLP was found with p < 0.05 under the dominant model. However, there were no significant findings in the female NSOFC subtypes associated with WNT3. Conversely, NOG rs227731 results showed a weak increased risk in female NSCLO and NSCPO with p < 0.05. Conclusion: this study identified the critical role of WNT3 rs3809857 in reducing NSCLO risk in males. These findings support the potential influence of sex as a modifying factor in the genetic susceptibility to non-syndromic orofacial clefts.