Context: Family functionality is the extent to which the patterns of family are effective and useful in achieving cordial relationship. A functional family relationship is vital for coping with mental stress. Aim: This study aimed to assess the family functionality status of patients with mental illness. Settings and Design: A cross-sectional design was employed in this study. Patients with mental illness were selected through systematic sampling from the mental health outpatient clinic of the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital in Rivers State. Materials and Methods: Family functionality status was assessed using the family adaptation, partnership, growth, affection, and resolve questionnaire, a validated and study instrument. Statistical Analysis Used: Univariate and bivariate analyses were performed using Predictive Analytics Software version 20. A P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The study consists of 151 patients, with a male–to-female ratio of 1:1.2. Functional family relationship was reported in 99 (65.6%) patients while severely and moderately dysfunctional relationships were noted in 12 (7.9%) and 40 (26.5%) patients, respectively. The prevalence of dysfunctional family relationship was highest among patients with mental and behavioral disorders due to psychoactive substance use (58.3%). The differences in proportions of family functionality status across the diagnostic categories were not significant. Conclusions: The presence of dysfunctional family status among patients with mental illness in this study highlights the need to implement family therapies to promote functional family relationship in patients with mental illness.

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Background: Choosing career is one of the most important decisions in life. Choosing dentistry as a career is one of the difficult and stressful decisions among dental students in India due to the uncertainty of the career and fear of unemployment. Purpose of Study: The purpose of this study is to investigate the motives behind choosing dentistry as a career option and as well as to determine the awareness regarding the future prospectus of dentistry. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional, descriptive survey. A questionnaire comprising of both close- and open-ended questions were distributed among the 208 undergraduate, intern, graduate, postgraduate, and lecturers in dental colleges in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. The response to the questionnaire so obtained was analyzed. Results: Data were analyzed using counts and percentages. Nearly 44% dentist were not satisfied with their income, 60% opted for dentistry because they could not secure a medical seat, 41% of budding dentist do not want to go for postgraduation because of less government seats and more fees in private colleges. The drastic result is that 31% dentist interested in changing the profession. Conclusion: The present scenario can be uplifted by increasing the Postgraduate seats and decreasing the Undergraduate seats in all dental colleges and to increase the job opportunities by creating more jobs in governmental sector. Counseling cell in each and every dental college to combat the stress among dental students should be established.

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Background: The volume of workload in histopathology laboratories need to be accurately measured so that resources can be used appropriately in a challenging clinical environment. Aims: The main objective of this work is to assess the adequacy of clinical information provided by clinicians requesting for histopathological investigations. Materials and Methods: A total of 1659 sequential histopathological request forms sent to Department of Histopathology of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital between January 1, and December 31, 2005, were retrospectively studied and analyzed. The provision of data by surgeons and physicians were compared in a Microsoft Excel 2000 Spreadsheet using the Chi-square test with Yates's correction where appropriate. Given the number of variables being assessed, a Bonferonni correction was applied, and a value of P = 0.001 was therefore considered the limit of significance. Results: A total of 1659 pathology request cards were audited in this study. Of these, 1382 cases accounting for 83.3% were a request made by surgeons while 277 constituting 16.7% were a request sent by physicians. Hence, the ratio of a request made by surgeons and physicians were 5:1. Among the request made by surgeons, the most common request was from the Surgery Department accounting for 783 (47.2%) of all requests. Among the 277 requests made by physicians, the department of internal medicine had the highest volume accounting for 122 (7.35%) of all cases. A total of 1415 out of 1659 were found to be inadequately completed accounting for 85.3%. There were significant differences in the information on ethnicity, date, time and clinical summary recorded by surgeons and physicians and the P < 0.001, respectively. Conclusion: Majority of the pathology request cards sent by clinicians are inadequately completed with an extremely high preanalytic phase errors.

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Context: Age is one of the essential factors of forensic odontology and is essential in establishing the identity of an individual. Estimation of the human age is a procedure adopted by anthropologists, archaeologists, and forensic scientists. Aim: The aim of this study was to develop a method for estimating the chronological age in Vidarbha population based on the relationship between age and various morphological variables of left mandibular canine tooth as obtained using digital orthopantomographs (OPGs). Subjects and Methods: Digital OPG of 200 patients was selected, and radiographic images of the left mandibular canine in each case were processed using a computer-aided designing program AutoCAD-2008. Regression equations were developed to estimate age from morphological variables. Results: Kappa statistics showed that the intraexaminer agreement score (κ = 0.91) was without a significant error in terms of reproducibility. Pearson's correlation coefficients between observed age and predictive morphological variables in males, females, and in the total sample population were highly significant and inversely correlated for AR (pulp/tooth area ratio) and c (pulp/root width ratio at midroot level) (P < 0.001). The participants' ages were modeled as a linear function of the morphological variables (predictors). Conclusions: There was observed a linear relationship of pulp/root width ratio at the midroot level and pulp/tooth area ratio of the left mandibular canine with chronological age in the Vidarbha population. Age of participants could, therefore, be estimated with a good degree of accuracy using regression equations.

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Background/Aims: The period of adolescence can be described as the transition from childhood to adulthood. This transition also comes with changes in the health needs of this group due to their unique biological, psychological, and social characteristics. Defining morbidity and mortality burden in adolescents will help identify their health needs. In developing countries, this information is lacking and hence our study is to describe the emergency room morbidity/mortality pattern among pediatric unit adolescent patients at the emergency of our health institution. Materials and Methods: A retrospective study reviewing case notes and admission records of children aged 10–16 years presenting between January 2008 and December 2012 in the emergency pediatric unit in the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital Gwagwalada was conducted. Both demographic and clinical data on indications for admission were extracted and entered into Microsoft Excel 2007. Data are presented in percentages. Results: Four hundred and eighty-nine adolescents were seen during the study. There were 285 (58.3%) males and 204 (41.7%) females. The major causes of morbidity and mortality were infectious diseases with malaria and septicemia ranking highest. Tetanus was more prevalent in males than females. Sickle cell anemia was the most common noncommunicable disease (NCD) in the study population. Mortality rate was 8.8% with 60.5% occurring in males. Conclusion: Infectious diseases are still a cause of morbidity and mortality in the adolescent population. Tackling infection is necessary while taking steps to control the emergence of NCD among childhood survivors.

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Lipoma is a frequently diagnosed lesion in clinical practice. However, they are rarely seen in the oral cavity. When they occur intraorally, the buccal mucosa is the most frequent site of occurrence, with the hard palate being a rare intraoral site. They are often asymptomatic although functional impairment may occur with large lesions. Few cases of lipoma of the hard palate have been reported in English literature. Excisional biopsy was performed under local anesthesia and histological diagnosis of lipoma was made. A case of intraoral lipoma in an atypical location and pertinent literature review pertaining to this condition are here presented.

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Context: Disaster is an unforeseen and sudden event that causes great destruction, damage, and human suffering. The World Disaster Report published in 2012 showed that the total number of people affected by disasters had significantly increased in the last few decades. This signifies the role of forensic anthropologists in personifying the identity of individuals during mass disasters. The age and sex of an individual can be determined by means of skeletal indicators when soft tissues are not available for analysis. Pelvis is the best skeletal indicator for sex determination. Next to pelvis, skull and head of femur are the next most important skeletal indicators. Furthermore, when the entire skull is not available for analysis, mandible plays a vital role as it is one of the strongest bones in the skull showing dimorphism. Various studies conducted in the past have proven the accuracy of panoramic radiographs in providing anatomical measurements helpful in the identification of individuals. The present study was conducted using digital orthopantomographs (OPGs) for the same. Aim: This study aims to measure and compare various measurements of the ramus in mandible on digital OPGs and to assess the usefulness of such measurements in personifying the identity of individuals by forensic anthropologists during mass disasters. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional, observational study was done using 500 digital OPGs taken with the help of SIRONA Digital Panoramic and Cephalometric System, and specific measurements of mandibular rami were carried out using the SIDEXIS-XG software. The data obtained was subjected to statistical analysis. The determination of sex was done by discriminant function analysis. Statistical Analysis: The data were analyzed using SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) version 13, SPSS Inc., Chicago, USA. Results: All the variables studied in the present study were found to be significant predictors of sex although variables C, D, and E were found to be highly significant with P values obtained being <0.001. Conclusion: The present study concluded that significant sex-related dimorphism was evident in rami of the mandibles indicating their potential in personifying the identity of individuals during mass disasters.

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