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In France, all incarcerated prisoners are required to undergo a dental examination (Ministère de la santé et de la protection sociale, 2004 and Ministère de la justice, 2004). However, only one in two prisoners benefits from this oral health check-up. Oral teleconsultation could improve the quality of oral care in prisons. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The focus of this study was therefore to apply oral teleconsultation as an experiment. Using an oral teleconsultation system, a dentist and a nurse were separately asked to give patients a score, according to how urgently their dental issue needed to be treated. This score will henceforth be referred to as the “dental emergency scores given”.

The separate dental emergency scores given by the dentist and the nurse were compared and the results demonstrate the following: – 36.7 per cent (11) of the two scores were equal – 53.3 per cent (16) of the two scores differed by 1 point – 10 per cent (3) of the two scores differed by 2 points. The average score of the nurse was 2.23 and that of the dentist was 2.13. The small disparity should not obscure the fact that 63 per cent of the diagnoses turned out to be incorrect.

Dental care could easily be improved with oral teleconsultation as a care plan could be developed for each patient.

The condition of one’s dental health is, of course, very important for general health, but it also affects social aspects. Good oral hygiene and health are very important when looking for a job after having been released from prison.

This is the first study on oral teleconsultation in prisons. Dental care is rarely studied on prisoners. Telemedicine in dentistry is just beginning all over the world. This study is the first step of an extensive project in the University Hospital of Montpellier and the Villeneuve-les-Maguelone prison.

The purpose of this paper is to design and to implement an oral health educational strategy that targeted an older population residing in three social protection centers (SPC) in Villavicencio, Colombia.

The first phase consisted in determining the oral health of older citizens in the SPC. To do this, the research group gathered patients’ personal information and indices. The second phase consisted in the development of an educational strategy based on the population’s requirements. The educational strategy, focusing on oral hygiene and denture care, was implemented for the older people and their caregivers. The third and final phase consisted in the research group measuring the effect of the designed strategy by repeating oral diagnoses for the older people six months after strategy implementation.

The results of the assessment indicated that implementing a strategy to strengthen oral hygiene care was positive, given that statistically significant reductions were observed in the soft plaque index and the Gingival Index (p<0.05).

As a result of the complexity of the population, the data obtained after the strategy was implemented were significantly reduced. However, these results indicate that an educational strategy can have an effect on this type of population.

Implementing a strategy that promotes oral hygiene education and brushing skills, fosters good oral behavior and helps the older people in SPC to remember the information taught, thus contributing to their oral hygiene.

Prisoners’ oral health is an often overseen, yet important aspect of the general health of prisoners. To develop effective measures to improve the situation, it is important to get an overview of existing research. The purpose of this study is to examine and analyse existing research on oral health of prisoners and provide a thorough understanding of prisoners’ oral health and related factors.

Due to relatively few scientific papers on prisoners’ oral health, an integrative review was chosen. Integrative reviews allow for the inclusion of diverse methodologies. A literature search was conducted, followed by an assessment of the quality of the studies by using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the studies.

The few studies addressing European prisoners’ oral health in the last 21 years differ in design and methodology. The results from this review indicate that prisoners’ oral health is a complex phenomenon and should be understood from both individual and organisational perspectives. More research is needed to bridge the gap in the literature on prisoners’ oral health.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first literature review on European prisoners’ oral health.

Dentists once believed that toothbrushing alone helped prevent dental decay. Opinion soon changed when they found the chief culprit was a bacterial film called Plaque that formed round teeth and gum margins. Normally invisible, Plaque is startlingly revealed by using special crimson‐stained disclosure tablets; without correct and regular brushing of teeth and gums, precious molars can loosen, decay, and be lost for ever.

Oral health is an integral part of the general health, however, oral health has been given lower priority than other health problems especially among the underprivileged refugee population. Out of total refugees in the world, 70 percent of the refugees belong to Tibet. The purpose of this paper is to assess the dental caries status and treatment needs of Tibetans residing in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, India and to explore and suggest better oral health care delivery to them.

Tibetans above the age of 12 years were included in this cross-sectional study. American Dental Association Type-3 examination was conducted. Data regarding demography and oral health practices was recorded on a structured format. For recording dental caries, dentition status and treatment need index was used. The data were analyzed using the SPSS statistical software. χ2 test, student t-test, and ANOVA test were used.

A total of 18,831 teeth were examined among which 82 percent were sound, 16.7 percent decayed, 0.7 percent were filled without decay, 0.1 percent filled with decay, 0.03 percent were bridge abutments and 0.15 percent teeth had traumatic injury. The mean DMFT was 7.3 and it was increasing with the age. Mean number of teeth requiring one surface filling, two or more surface filling, pulp therapy, and extraction was 1.27, 0.39, 0.21, and 2.08, respectively.

The study revealed low prevalence of dental caries among Tibetans and dental treatment requirement steadily increased with the advancement of age and was also related to other factors like poverty, education, and their tough life where oral health is given no priority.

The article intended to excavate the Lean Six Sigma (LSS) deployment challenges, Critical Success Factors (CSF), tools and techniques, and managerial implications in an Indian healthcare setting.

The article illustrates a case study established using Action Research (AR) approach. Further, the case study is based on the Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control (DMAIC) phases of LSS. The performance and service quality of the Endodontics department of a dental college attached to a hospital is enhanced and sustained through the LSS strategy.

The processing time of Root Canal treatment is reduced by determining the root causes for delay and implementing sustainable solutions. The structured deployment of the LSS strategy helped the Endodontics department to reduce the processing time from an average of 116 min–84 min. Thus, the process's sigma level is enhanced from 0.06 to 4.17 and assisted in sustaining the results.

The case study's findings are based on the single AR carried out at an Endodontics department of a dental college hospital based on LSS strategies. Even though this study's results cannot be generalized, the deliverables of the case study can be used to develop the LSS roadmap for the dental colleges to enhance the service quality and safety of the patients.

The article provides step-by-step details for implementing LSS in dental college hospitals with critical analysis based on robust statistical tools and techniques. The case study provides evidence of the adoption of LSS in medical college education and provides the confidence to adopt the same through novice users. The study's findings may persuade the policymakers to add LSS in the medical education curriculum to reinforce safety and reduce errors in the healthcare system.

Review of various models of the fear communication process and research on the effectiveness of fear appeals indicates that fear arousal is a complex, individually unique emotion. Inconsistent results concerning the impact of fear appeals in consumer behavior are noted. Issues arising from employing fear appeals in advertising are outlined and practical guidelines for their use are presented.

The physical health of patients with severe mental illness is often neglected or managed poorly, and regular review of physical health is now being strongly advised. The study described here explored the feasibility of such reviews in a community mental health care setting. A small group of patients was invited to attend for blood tests and a brief physical examination. The findings from the study suggest that the monitoring of patients with severe enduring mental illness is an important but difficult task. It will require careful planning and the engagement of patients, general practitioners and community mental health teams.

This article is based on extracts from a booklet Careers in Nursing and other health service professions 1979 which is obtainable price 90p (post paid) from The New Opportunity Press Ltd., 76 St. James's Lane, London N10 3RD.

Excess morbidity in people with enduring mental illness is well known. The promotion of healthier lifestyles and physical health monitoring has started to receive more attention in recent years. Despite this, the British Society for Disability and Oral Health (BSDH) has highlighted extensive unmet needs for inpatients with mental illness who have poor levels of oral health and hygiene compounded by restricted access to dental services. An audit cycle of oral health and hygiene was completed at Heather Close Recovery Unit (HCRU), Mansfield in 2009 and 2010, with the aims to improve the oral healthcare of the patients at HCRU and to develop the multidisciplinary team's ability to promote, monitor and enable patients to look after their dental health. A total of 59 people were helped to fill in the questionnaire during two audit runs. Improvement in access to toothbrushes increased from 68% to 86%. There is also an improvement in knowledge of basic oral hygiene practice from 55% to 61%. The ideally recommended practice of brushing teeth twice daily increased from 29% to 38% in our patients. There was a little improvement in the number of patients registered with the dentist since the last audit. We believe that prevention and early intervention are keys to addressing dental health problems in psychiatric patients. The improvement in oral/dental healthcare of patients with chronic mental illness should be seen as part of the holistic recovery package. Effective liaison with community preventive dentistry teams can play a vital role in educating mental health practitioners and patients.