The outbreak of COVID- 19 disease has taken the world by surprise. The disease mainly affects the respiratory system and is caused by a strain of coronavirus named SARS-CoV-2. Due to its high recombination rates the virus has an immense potential to spread rapidly. Within months of the first case being reported in Wuhan China, the disease has turned rapidly into a pandemic. The world health experts are already actively looking for a definite cure or vaccine for the disease, but till that many of the countries across the globe are looking up onto mass quarantine measures as a method to control its spread. This article is an attempt to review the effectiveness of these measures and the possible adverse effects of the same. Other possible modes of prevention and controlling the spread of the disease have also been reviewed in the article.

Background Pediatric dental treatment is challenging in patients with early childhood caries. For clinician its difficult to manage child and provide good work at the same time. Its necessity to have the best equipments as well as materials. Nowadays, aesthetics play an important role in managing decayed teeth. Zirconia crown is better option but requires excessive preparation. As Bioflx is newly developed crown and has combined stainless steel and zirconia properties. Aim To assess the clinical performance and child and parental satisfaction of Bioflex crowns compared to zirconia and stainless steel crowns. Methods In this comparative study of Bioflx crowns with zirconia and stainless steel crowns, children aged three to seven years old will be selected, and 72 primary teeth requiring crowns will be randomly distributed into three groups, n = 24: Group I: Preformed stainless steel crown, control; Group II: Preformed Bioflex crown; Group III: Preformed zirconia crown. Crowns will be evaluated for recurrent caries, plaque accumulation, restoration failure, gingival status opposing tooth wear, and clinicians and parental satisfaction at zero, three, six, and 12 months. Results Bioflx crown will have better clinical as well as parental satisfaction among zirconia and stainless steel crowns. Conclusions The Bioflx crown can be used as an alternative economical esthetic full-coronal restoration for primary teeth. Trial registration CTRI registration number: CTRI/2023/05/052256; Date of registration: May 03, 2023. Protocol version Two; Date: April 22, 2023

Aims: Evaluation of calcium ion and hydroxyl ion release and pH levels in various calcium hydroxide based intracanal medicaments. Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate calcium and hydroxyl ion release and pH levels of calcium hydroxide based products, namely, RC Cal, Metapex, calcium hydroxide with distilled water, along with the new gutta-percha points with calcium hydroxide. Materials and Methods: The materials were inserted in polyethylene tubes and immersed in deionized water. The pH variation, Ca ⁺⁺ and OH⁻ release were monitored periodically for 1 week. Statistical Analysis Used: Statistical analysis was carried out using one-way analysis of variance and Tukey's post hoc tests with PASW Statistics version 18 software to compare the statistical difference. Results: After 1 week, calcium hydroxide with distilled water and RC Cal raised the pH to 12.7 and 11.8, respectively, while a small change was observed for Metapex, calcium hydroxide gutta-percha points. The calcium released after 1 week was 15.36 mg/dL from RC Cal, followed by 13.04, 1.296, 3.064 mg/dL from calcium hydroxide with sterile water, Metapex and calcium hydroxide gutta-percha points, respectively. Conclusions: Calcium hydroxide with sterile water and RC Cal pastes liberate significantly more calcium and hydroxyl ions and raise the pH higher than Metapex and calcium hydroxidegutta-percha points.

Objective: To investigate the effectiveness of aloevera gel as a new storage medium in maintaining the viability of periodontal ligament cells. Study design: Premolars extracted for orthodontic reason were obtained. Confluent monolayers of fibroblasts were grown by cell culture method from the PDL cells isolated from the extracted teeth. One ml of this cell suspension was transferred to wells of culture plates, incubated for 24 hrs, followed by exposure to the three experimental media, Hank's balanced salt solution (HBSS), aloevera gel, and packaged drinking water. These plates were then assessed for viable cells using trypan blue dye exclusion test with haemocytometer after 15, 30, 60, 90 and 120 mins. The results obtained were statistically analysed using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Results: At 15 min, HBSS presented maximum mean percentage of viable PDL cells (89%), followed by aloevera at 81% and packaged drinking water at 10%. Aloevera demonstrated 71%, 59%, 57% viable cells at 30, 60, 90 mins respectively. At 120 min, HBSS presented 57% viable cells followed by aloevera gel (45%) and packaged drinking water (3%). No statistical significant difference was observed between HBSS and aloevera gel. Conclusions: Within the parameters of this study, both aloevera gel and HBSS were effective in maintaining the viability of PDL cells. Hence, aloevera gel could be used as a storage media for avulsed tooth in situations where availability of HBSS is in question.

Two devastating pandemics, the Spanish Flu and COVID-19, emerged globally in 1918 from America and 2019 from China, respectively. Influenza virus A H1N1, which caused Spanish Flu and SARS-CoV2, which caused COVID-19, belong to different virus family and bear different structure, genomic organization and pathogenicity. However, the trajectory of the current outbreak of COVID-19 depicts a similar picture of the Spanish Flu outbreak. Estimates suggest that ~500 million infected cases and ~50 million deaths occurred globally from 1918-1919 due to the H1N1 virus. While SARS-CoV2 accounted for ~2 million cases and 130,885 deaths just within three and a half months, and the number is still increasing. To contain the spread of COVID-19 and to prevent the situation which happened a century back, it becomes essential to examine and correlate these pandemics in terms of their origin, epidemiology and clinical scenario. The strategies tailored to control the Spanish Flu pandemic may help to contain the current pandemic within time.

Background: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder and is the most common cause of dementia. Early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease is critical for better management and treatment outcomes, but it remains a challenging task due to the complex nature of the disease. Clinical data, including a range of cognitive, functional, and demographic variables, play a crucial role in Alzheimer’s disease classification. Also, challenges such as data imbalance and high-dimensional feature sets often hinder model performance. Objective: This paper aims to propose a computationally efficient, reliable, and transparent machine learning-based framework for the classification of Alzheimer’s disease patients. This framework is interpretable and helps medical practitioners learn complex patterns in patients. Method: This study addresses these issues by employing boosting algorithms, for enhanced classification accuracy. To mitigate data imbalance, a random sampling technique is applied, ensuring a balanced representation of Alzheimer’s and healthy cases. Extensive feature analysis was conducted to identify the most impactful clinical features followed by feature reduction techniques to focus on the most informative clinical features, reducing model complexity and overfitting risks. Explainable AI tools, such as SHAP, LIME, ALE, and ELI5 are integrated to provide transparency into the model’s decision-making process, highlighting key features influencing the classification and allowing clinicians to understand and trust the key features driving the predictions. Results: This approach results in a robust, interpretable, and clinically relevant framework for Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis. The proposed approach achieved the best accuracy of 95%, demonstrating its effectiveness and potential for reliable early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that integrating ensemble learning algorithms and explainable AI, while using a balanced dataset with feature selection, improves quantitative results and interpretability. This approach offers a promising method for early and better-informed clinical decisions.