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Biomedical subjects

R W Comer

Publications and source records attributed to R W Comer.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Small business needs assessment: a comparison of dental educators' responses with SBDC survey results.

A primary focus of dental education is to teach students the knowledge, skills, and values essential for practicing dentistry. However, the preparation of dentists to manage a business is frequently cited as inadequate. A survey was prepared to assess teachers' opinions of business instructional topics: challenges; desired training; employee benefits; learning resources; importance of business topics; and appropriateness of time allocations. The purpose of this project is to compare opinions of teachers of dental practice management with key management aspects reported for service businesses by the Small Business Development Center (SBDC). Practice management teachers from forty-eight (89 percent) schools responded to the survey. They indicated that several challenges confronting dentists are similar to other service businesses. Dentists, however, rank customer relations appreciably higher. In order of importance of teaching topics, the practice management teachers rank ethics and personnel management as a high priority and planning as a low priority. Awareness of the similarities and differences in the perceptions of practice management teachers and businesspeople may result in instructional improvements.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed2000

Comparison of 5 protocols based on their abilities to use data extracted from digitized clinical radiographs to discriminate between patients with gingivitis and periodontitis.

BACKGROUND: This study was undertaken to compare 5 digital analytic protocols for their abilities to extract data from digital clinical radiographs and discriminate between patients with gingivitis and periodontitis. METHODS: Five digital-image analysis protocols were compared for their abilities to discriminate between two groups of 24 patients each. One group was diagnosed with healthy gingiva (or gingivitis) and the second with periodontitis. These groups were previously evaluated in published studies that used fractal and morphologic analyses. Pre-existing clinical radiographs for each patient were digitized and regions of interest (ROIs) were placed on interdental bone in mandibular posterior quadrants. The 5 protocols used were: 1) MGB: a median filtration to remove high-frequency noise, a Gaussian filtration to remove low-frequency noise, binarization of the resulting image, and quantification of the black pixels; 2) MGBS: the same protocol as MGB except for a skeletonization of the binary image and a quantification of the skeleton's pixels; 3) GBS: Gaussian filtration, binarization (thresholding on the mean pixel value) of the resulting image, skeletonization, and quantification of the pixels of the skeleton; 4) NS: normalization, skeletonization, and quantification of the skeleton's pixels; and 5) S: a variation of NS, except normalization was not used. The resulting values for the 2 patient groups were compared with Mann-Whitney U tests and effect likelihood-ratio test. RESULTS: For digitized radiographs, the mean gray-scale value (+/- standard deviation) for gingivitis patients was 183.22 +/- 18.53 and for periodontitis patients 181.26 +/- 17.20. Mann-Whitney U tests resulted in the following P values for these protocols: MGBS <0.01; S <0.01; GBS <0.01; NS <0.01; and MGB <0.83. Effect likelihood-ratio tests indicated that only MGBS and S significantly contributed to models containing the other factors. CONCLUSIONS: Small variations to protocols affected the strength of the discrimination between the gingivitis and periodontitis groups. While there is potential for morphologic analysis to be used to discriminate between patients with gingivitis and periodontitis, a robust technique was not identified.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

The effect of autoclaving on energy transmission through light-curing tips.

The authors subjected three groups of curing lights to 25 sterilization cycles to test the effects of autoclaving on the curing tip's ability to transmit light. They also investigated whether polishing the tip at various intervals would reduce the effects of autoclaving on light transmission. They found that autoclaving does diminish the ability of the tips to transmit light, but that these effects can be minimized if the tip is polished at frequent intervals between autoclaving cycles.

Composite Resins↗
PubMed1991

Management considerations for an HIV positive dental student.

Health care workers who are HIV positive or who have AIDS are faced with unique and perplexing problems. Likewise dental students who are HIV positive present a special circumstance that demands review of ethical, legal, managerial, and medical considerations. The purpose of this paper is to describe the management considerations at the Medical College of Georgia following a recent report of an HIV positive dental student. The administration assembled a diverse team of experts for advice in the situation. This group assumed that the circumstance was a potential crisis with possible serious long-term implications. Therefore detailed planning, appropriate announcements, and careful management have been the administration's principle goal for several weeks. The key management strategies and actions are described from the time of notification of the student's HIV antibody test results through the initial testing of the patient population subgroup.

AIDS Serodiagnosis↗
PubMed1989

Oral trauma. Emergency care of lacerations, fractures, and burns.

Emergency physicians are usually the first to see patients with injuries to oral and facial tissues. Because many of these patients may have life-threatening neurologic injuries, secondary oral and perioral problems may be overlooked initially. These injuries, however, have a profound potential for causing lifelong disability and disfigurement and should be addressed as soon as the patient's condition stabilizes. It is essential to diagnose and manage these problems effectively in the emergency setting and then to make prompt direct referral to an appropriate specialist when the patient's condition permits.

Burns, Electric↗
PubMed1989

The reduction of phenytoin-induced gingival overgrowth in a severely disabled patient: a case report.

Gingival overgrowth frequently occurs in patients medicated with phenytoin (5,5-diphenylhydantoin) to control epileptic seizures. In a recent study, gingival overgrowth was observed in a patient in an experimental group evaluating an automatic toothbrushing system for severely disabled patients. During the evaluation period, which included an oral hygiene regimen provided by an attendant or housemate and a regimen with the Mississippi Dental Care System (MDCS), the patient's gingival overgrowth was noticeably reduced. The results of this study indicate that control of local factors with the MDCS is significantly better than the routine home care regimen, and that the phenytoin-associated gingival overgrowth in this patient was reduced by MDCS.

Adult↗