Journal of Dental Medicine

Background and Aim: Compared to the information about educational responsibilities, there is not much information about the research skills and activities of the academics in dental schools. The aim of this study was to evaluate the research performance of the academic staff of the dental schools and their educational needs to promote their research skills.

Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was done by mailing a questionnaire to all of the members of Iran dental faculties. The questionnaires contained personal information like age, sex, place of employment, educational records, and additional questions like the workshops previously attended, and interests to attend certain workshops. To evaluate the research performance of the academic staff, the number of accomplished researches, the articles published in known national and international journals, their skills in using internet, and the number of attended workshops about research methodology were included in the questionnaire. The completed questionnaires were gathered and evaluated by descriptive statistics.

Results: From the questionnaires gathered, 436 were eligible to be included in the study, which formed 58% of the academic staff of dental schools. The results showed that 7.4% of the staff had more than 10 researches conducted, 15% had 5-10, 49.9% had less than 5, and 27.7 had no researches done. Considering the articles published in known national journals, 28.2% had no papers, 51.8% had 1-5 papers, and 20% had more than 5 papers. Regarding the number of articles published in known international journals, 77.5% had no papers, and 20.2% had 1-3, and 2.3% and more than 3 papers. The "preliminary research methods" workshop had the highest percent of participation (71.6%), and "Stata acquaintance" workshop had the least (0.7%). The participants were mainly interested to participate in three workshops, "English scientific writing" (26.3%), "principles of scientific writing" (17.5%), and preparing research proposals" (16.2%), respectively.

Conclusion: We concluded that the research skills and performance of the academic staff, though improved in the recent years, is still unsatisfying. In order to promote it, it is recommended to organize workshops about "research methodology", "scientific writing" and "preparing of proposals"

Background and Aim: Plaque control has always been important in preventive dentistry. Various methods and materials have been introduced for this purpose. Recently a three-colored tooth paste has been introduced which claims to prevent plaque formation. The aim of this study was to compare three-colored pouneh tooth paste containing triclosan with the conventional one in preventing plaque formation.

Materials and Methods: This was a randomized double blind cross over clinical trial which was carried out on 40 dental students of Tehran azad university in 2005. Before beginning the trial, the index of plaque was evaluated, registered and reduced to null. The subjects were randomly divided into two groups, the case group (three color tooth paste) and the control group (conventional tooth paste). The participants were asked to apply the specified tooth paste with an oral B Advantage Artica toothbrush for two weeks. After two weeks, the amount of plaque was re-registered and again reduced to null. The type of tooth paste was changed among two groups and the plaque was registered for the third time at the end of two weeks. Then the patients and assessors were not aware of the type of tooth paste in the tubes (double blind). McNamar and ManWhitney test were used.

Results: From the 40 subjects, 4 cases were omitted due to the different reasons. The amount of initial plaque index was 88.3 12.1 which was reduced to 78.2 16.9 in the control and 74.1 19.3 in the case group. The difference between primary plaque and secondary plaque (after applying tooth paste) was significant in both case and control groups, however there was not any significant difference between two groups.

Conclusion: Based on the results of this study, there was not any significant difference between conventional and three-colored tooth paste in reducing the plaque index.