Indian Journal of Dental Education

Artificialintelligence(AI)hasemergedasatransformativetechnologyinhealthcare, offering unprecedented opportunities for improving diagnosis, treatment planning, prognosis, and personalized patient care. In periodontology, AI applications have expanded rapidly owing to advances in machine learning (ML), deep learning (DL), computer vision, and natural language processing. These technologies facilitate the analysis of complex clinical, radiographic, microbiological, and genetic datasets, thereby supporting clinicians in making evidence-based decisions. AI-driven systems have demonstrated promising accuracy in detecting periodontal bone loss, classifying periodontitis, predicting disease progression, and evaluating treatment outcomes. Furthermore, integration of AI with digital dentistry and precision medicine may enhance individualized periodontal care. Despite these advantages, challenges such as limited dataset diversity, lack of external validation, ethical concerns, algorithmic bias, and regulatory issues continue to impede widespread clinical adoption. This narrative review discusses the fundamental concepts of AI, current applications in periodontology, limitations of existing evidence, and future directions for research and clinical implementation.

Background: Pediatric dentistry is a specialized branch of dental science that focuses on the oral health of infants, children, and adolescents. It encompasses preventive, diagnostic, and therapeutic care tailored to the unique needs of young patients. For undergraduate dental students, exposure to pediatric dentistry is an essential component of their training. Their knowledge, clinical practice experiences, and perceptions toward this specialty influence both their competence in managing pediatric patients and their willingness to pursue pediatric dentistry as a career. However, challenges such as limitations in delivering best treatment to child patient, afraid to treat young patient may affect the student’s perception towards pediatric dentistry. Objective: To assess undergraduate dental students’ knowledge, clinical exposure, and future perception towards pediatric dentistry, and to understand how they view its importance, challenges and careers prospects. Methodology: A cross-sectional questionnaire-based survey will be conducted among undergraduate dental students. It has 3 domain which will assess theoretical knowledge, practice and future perception of students. Then data will be analysed to identify trends and association between knowledge, practice and perception of students. Result: Result of the study showed that both final year and interns have moderate level of knowledge, while interns are more interested in clinical practice than final year students. Conclusion: Study concluded that preoccupation of pediatric dentistry is questionable. Students are not sure about preffering pediatric dentistry as a post graduate subject which is may be due to less awareness about the subject, vastness of the subject or may be due to less awareness of subject by the society.

Background: Fixed orthodontic brackets introduce structural niches that promote the accumulation of cariogenic biofilms. While Streptococcus mutans initiates enamel demineralization, Lactobacilli drive the progression of cavitated lesions. Traditional antimicrobials present significant clinical limitations. Antimicrobial photodynamic therapy (aPDT) offers a compelling, resistance-free alternative, yet the relative, intrinsic susceptibility of these two key pathogens to natural photosensitizer-mediated aPDT around orthodontic hardware remains poorly characterized. Objective: To systematically evaluate and compare the intrinsic susceptibility of Streptococcus mutans and Lactobacilli biofilms formed around stainless steel orthodontic brackets to aPDT mediated by curcumin or riboflavin activated by a 445 nm blue diode laser (BDL) at varying power densities. Methods: One hundred twenty extracted human premolars bonded with stainless steel brackets were inoculated with either S. mutans (n=60) or Lactobacilli (n=60) to establish 72-hour mature single-species biofilms. Within each bacterial division, specimens were randomized into three core experimental blocks (each): Group I (100 µM Riboflavin), Group II (40 µM Curcumin), or Group III (Laser/Compound Controls). These were further subdivided (n=10) to undergo 30-second irradiation with a 445 nm BDL at either a low-power output (200 mW •) or high-power output (500 mW •). Surviving sessile colonies were liberated, serially diluted, cultured, and quantified as CFU/mL. Data were analyzed via Shapiro-Wilk testing, oneway ANOVA with Tukey’s post hoc test, and independent t-tests (α =0.05) Results: Baseline unexposed control loads were equivalent for S. mutans (5.98 ± 0.12log10 CFU/mL) and Lactobacilli (5.97 ± 0.13log10 CFU/mL). Under highefficacy configurations, S. mutans consistently exhibited significantly greater susceptibility to photodynamic eradication than Lactobacilli (p < 0.05). Curcumin aPDT at 500 mW generated the maximum bacterial reduction, yielding a 99.4% clearance (3.75 ± 0.19log10CFU/mL) for S. mutans compared to a 98.9% clearance (4.02 ± 0.22log10 CFU/mL) for Lactobacilli (p < 0.01 relative to baseline controls). boflavinaPDTachievedacceptableclinicalreductiononlyat500mW,resultingin a 92.6% reduction (4.85 ± 0.20log10 CFU/mL) in S. mutans versus an 88.0% reduction (5.05 ± 0.22log10 CFU/mL) in Lactobacilli (p < 0.31). Increasing the BDL output from 200 mW to 500 mW significantly amplified bactericidal kinetics across all protocols (p < 0.01), though the interspecies susceptibility gap was preserved throughout. Conclusions: Streptococcus mutans is intrinsically more susceptible to blue light-mediated photodynamic inactivation than Lactobacilli around orthodontic brackets. Lactobacilli exhibit higher tolerance, requiring elevated photodynamic energy thresholds to achieve comparable logs of reduction. Curcumin-mediated aPDT at 500 mW delivers superior bactericidal efficacy against both target pathogens compared to riboflavin, supporting organism-specific, targeted aPDT regimens in orthodontic patients.

Healthy ageing is increasingly defined by preservation of functional ability, independence, participation, and quality of life rather than by lifespan extension alone. Oral function is a potentially modifiable component of this trajectory, yet prosthodontic care is rarely discussed within broader longevity-oriented healthcare models. This critical narrative review examines the evidence linking oral functional impairment with nutrition, frailty, cognition, psychosocial participation, and quality of life, while distinguishing observational associations from evidence generated by prosthodontic interventions. A structured literature search was undertaken using PubMed/MEDLINE and supplementary searches of major biomedical databases and authoritative health-agency sources, with emphasis on systematic reviews, meta-analyses, longitudinal studies, clinical intervention studies, and policy documents published from 2000 to July 2026. The literature was thematically synthesized rather than quantitatively pooled because of substantial heterogeneity in populations, definitions of oral function, prosthetic interventions, and outcome measures. Contemporary evidence supports consistent associations between tooth loss/oral frailty and adverse nutritional and functional outcomes, while evidence that prosthodontic rehabilitation directly modifies cognition, frailty, or longevity remains limited and predominantly observational. Importantly, recent systematic reviews indicate that prosthetic rehabilitation may improve nutritional status and oral-health-related quality of life, but effects on dietary intake and systemic outcomes are less consistent. Based on this evidence a proposed Prosthodontic Healthspan Framework is introduced, positioning restoration of oral functional reserve as a potential upstream component of healthy-ageing care. The framework emphasizes risk identification, restoration of mastication and swallowing-related function, nutritional co-management, longitudinal maintenance, and patient-centred outcomes. Prosthodontics should therefore be viewed not as a proven longevity therapy, but as a potentially important component of multidisciplinary healthspan preservation requiring prospective interventional evaluation.

A male patient (aged 47 years) got into an accident, reported to the Emergency Unit with the complaint of traumatic injury to the face. He was bleeding profusely from the nose & his lower lip got completely torn off. The resident doctors of the Emergency room gave the primary care like suturing the lower lip and giving some IV analgesics to him. After getting a bit stability in his condition, they sent him for Face CT and a chest X-ray. Later, the case was referred to the Dental department. The Face CT reveals traumatic luxation injuries to the central and lateral incisors of the maxillary region, but no injuries to the adjoining bony structure was found. Finally, eriodontal splinting was done to the maxillary canine to canine region under LA to reposition the luxated teeth