Abstract: The aims of this study were to ev-aluate the effect of denture cleansers on the colour of acrylic resin denture base material, and to evaluate the effect of particle size and surface roughness of acrylic resin material on their colour change.Sixty four acrylic specimens were prepared from the three types of acrylic resin materials of 30×20×1.5 mm (length× wid-th× thickness, respectively). After the con-ditioning in distilled water, they were immersed in eight types of denture cleansers for 7 days. The colour changes were assessed using a computerized ultraviolet–visible spectrophotometer with accuracy up to 0.001. Visual examination of colour change was done by three independent examiners. The analysis of particle size was performed with a sieving machine. The surface roughness of acrylic specimens was measured using a computerized surface texture measuring and recording machine (Perthometer). A statistical analysis was performed using analysis of variance and Duncan's Multiple Range Test. The results revealed that there was a significant difference at p ≤ 0.01 between the tested solutions and also between the three types of acrylic resin materials. It was concluded that denture cleansers induced colour change of acrylic resin denture base materials. The self–curing acrylic exhibited the highest colour change. The smaller particle size and the smoothest surface of resin materials decreased the amount of colour change.

Abstract: The aim of this research is to investigate the incidence of tooth loss, distribution of tooth loss in the oral cavity, the incidence of smoking habits and its relation to tooth loss and to evaluate the motivation of patients to replace their missing teeth and their attitude toward the type of replacement, either fixed or removable in rural area (AlShamsiat village) in Nine-vah Governorate. A sample of 500 individual aged 15–70 years was selected randomly and examined using special chart prepared for this study. The results showed that 337 subjects were with partially missing of teeth. Three subjects (3.96%) with complete loss of teeth and the rest (160 subjects, 32%) were complete natural teeth. The study showed that there is no significant relationship between smoking and tooth loss. The motivation of patients was toward the type of prosthesis that are made mostly of removable acrylic type. A high percentage of population (64.86%) desire to replace their missing teeth in the village, which reflect the need of dental health, and dental treatment in the community.

Abstract: The purposes of this study were to evaluate the shear bonding strength of stainless steel brackets bonded with self–etching primer adhesive system (Trans-bondTM 3M Uniteck, Monrovia, California, USA), compared with same system which employ 35% phosphoric acid gel, separated primer and adhesive. Also to assess and compare clinically the brackets bonding failure rate after using the 2 different techniques in orthodontic patients and to examine bracket / adhesive failure mode by using modified adhesive remnant index (MARI). Fifty six extracted human premolars used in the laboratory part, they were divided into 2 groups (I and II), each one subdivided into upper first and second, lower first and second premolars; 7 for each subgroup. In the first group bonding was carried out by using the conventional technique (phosphoric acid / adhesive) wh-ile in the second one, the self–etching primer was used. In the clinical part 15 pat-ients with upper and lower fixed appliances (central, lateral incisors, canines and premolars) with 13–16 years old. The fol-low up period extended into 12–15 months. The statistical analyses in the laboratory (in vitro) part reported significantly lower but acceptable shear bond strength (8.69 and 8.42 MPa) for the upper first and second premolars, and 8.13 and 8.99 MPa for lower first and second premolars in comparison with the conventional groups (11.61 and 11.63 MPa) for upper first and second premolars, and 11.48 and 11.59 MPa for the lower first and second pre-molars as t–values were significant (2.69, 3.05 for the upper first and second pre-molars; 2.68, 2.45 for the lower first and second premolars) at p < 0.05 between study groups, but in the clinical trial no significant difference between the groups were recorded in relation to bonding failure rate as values of Z test of two proportions were ranged between 0.98 and 1.94, 0.00 and 1.94 for the upper and lower arches respectively, in spite of the higher percentages of failure rate for the self–etching primer adhesive group. The MARI reported higher frequencies at score 2, and score 3 for the control and experimental (self–etching primer) groups respectively. It can be concluded that in spite of the lower bondin strength values for the self– etching primer adhesive, but the results appear to be acceptable and this adhesive is recommended to be used in orthodontic practice. In accompanied to that the residual adhesive amount were smaller than those of the conventional one so that less damage happened to enamel surface during debonding procedures.

Abstract: The purposes of this study are to determine the faciolingual inclinations of tooth crowns in Class I normal occlusion of Iraqi adolescent in Mosul City, investigate the possible significant differences between genders, and determine the correlation of the faciolingual inclination of teeth crown with each others.The sample of this study consisted from 35 Iraqi adolescents (19 males and 16 females) aged 12–16 years selected according to certain criteria from Mosul City. Stone casts were taken for each subject, the faciolingual inclinations were made on the dental models of the subjects by using torque angle gauge. The data were analyzed with the Statistical Package for Social Sciences program and it was found that each tooth distally to the central incisor had more lingual inclination than did its neighbor. The females had more labial inclination of upper lateral incisor and more lingual inclination of the lower canine, premolars and first molar as compared with the males. Most intraarch teeth torque correlation were positive and decreased with remoteness while most interarch teeth correlation showed weak negative correlation.

Abstract: The aim of this study was to evaluate amalgam and composite resin restorations work in private practice in Mosul City. A list of dentist practicing in private clinics was obtained from the Iraqi Dental Association in Mosul City. One hundred sixty dentists involved in the questionnaire were selected rand-omly from a total of 200 dentists in the list supplied. The questionnaire concerned with the step–by–step restorative treatment including diagnosis and case selection, cavity preparation, types of liners and ba-ses used, amalgam restoration and direct esthetic restorations. The results revealed that 100% of the respondents perform restorative dental therapy in their private clinics. The results also revealed an evaluation (as percentage) for most of steps concerned with direct restorative techniques.

Abstract: This study highlights on examining 100 dental students within the clinical years program. The oral hygiene status and gingival conditions were diagnosed by using the plaque index score (Silness and Löe, 1964) and the gingival index score (Löe and Silness, 1963). On this basis, the width of the attached gingiva and the de-pth of the gingival pockets were evaluated. The gingival recessions were recorded and their heights measured from the cement-oenamel junction to the gingival margin. Questionnaires about method, time and fr-equency of toothbrushing and type of too-thbrush used were recorded. The results showed that 33 students have one or more gingival recession, 18 students had one and 15 students had two or more; among them 5 had 3 and 2 had 4 recessions, and no significant correlation was found between oral hygiene and gin-gival recession, oral hygiene and width of attached gingiva, gingival conditions and gingival recession, gingival conditions and width of attached gingiva, width of att-ached gingiva and number of gingival recessions. No statistically significant diff-erences were observed in oral hygiene status and gingival conditions among three groups of students (without, with one and with two or more recessions, respectively). No correlations were shown between diff-erent methods of toothbrushing, time of brushing and type of toothbrush used and gingival recessions. Only correlation was found between frequency of brushing and gingival recessions.

Abstract: The aim of this study was to evaluate dental problems of diabetic adult patients in Mosul City center, to find if there is any variation between age and sex groups and to determine the periodontal treatment ne-eds of the patients. A sample of 194 adult diabetic pati-ents (90 males, 104 females) divided into 6 age groups were examined using plaque and gingival indices by Löe and Silness (1967), Ramfjord calculus index (1959) and Community Periodontal Index of Tre-atment Needs (CPITN) (1997). The results showed that the mean plaque and gingival indices for the total sample were increasing with age with highly statistically significant difference with no sex variation. Concerning Ramf-jord calculus index, calculus became the most prevalent with very high means for 20–29 years old and above for both sexes, CPITN revealed that healthy sextants exhibited a very low mean of 0.8 for the youngest age group, bleeding on probing was highest in this age group with a mean of 3.4, pockets of 4–5 mm appeared at age 20–29 years and it increases with increas-ing age. The results revealed that the total sam-ple needed oral hygiene instruction (100%), while prophylaxis was needed in 55.56–100%, surgical intervention and complex care were needed for old ages.

Abstract: The aims of this study were to find the prevalence of finger sucking habit am-ong primary school children and to detect the effect of some factors like parents’ occupation, socioeconomic status of the family, pacifier use, feeding method and child rank on the occurrence of the habit. Effects of finger sucking habit on occlu-sion were also looked for. The prevalence of finger sucking ha-bit was looked for in 1780 students (1030 boys and 750 girls) in six primary schools randomly selected in the center of Mosul City. The age of the students ranged bet-ween 6–14 years, with a mean of 10.2 years. The habit was noted in 5.56% of the students, with significant female prepond-erance. In comparison with a nearly identical control group, finger–sucking habit was significantly higher in those, whose moth-ers were officials, those who were on bot-tle–feeding and those who were not using pacifier. No significant influence of fath-er’s occupation, children birth rank and ec-onomic status of the family on the preval-ence of finger sucking habit was noted. Finger suckers showed a significant increase in overjet, anterior open bite and decrease in deep bite and lower arch spac-ing. No significant difference was noted between finger suckers and the control group with respect to upper anterior spa-cing, upper and lower crowding and poste-rior cross bite.

Abstract: The aim of this study was to evaluate the common errors that may occur during crown and bridge construction. Four hund-red stone models were used in this study for fabrication of 265 bridges and 135 sin-gle crown. The total number of units was 1141. Four main parameters were evalua-ted for each stone model: General informa-tion about the case, the condition of the stone model, the type of impression mater-ial and the prepared abutment tooth. The result of this study showed that 33.7% of the models were one unit and 48.7% of the models were 2–4 units and the remaining 17.5% of the models were more than five units, 8.7% of the models were without opposing arch. Alginate imp-ression materials were used in 95% of the cases and only 5% of the cases elastomeric impression material were used. The finish-ing line was absent in 19.7% of the cases. Enough tooth reduction was done in 61.3% of the cases and 16.3% of the cases showed too much tooth reduction while 22.4% of the cases the tooth reduction was not enough. In order to avoid these errors continuous education courses and journal club are highly recommended.

Abstract: The aims of the present study were to establish the cephalometric craniofacial skeletal norms of Iraqi adolescents by me-ans of linear and angular analyses of po-stero–anterior and lateral cephalometric radiographs and to reveal any correlation between the variables measured. The sample consisted of 101 Iraqi ad-olescents (52 males and 49 females) aged 12–15 years with Class I normal occlu-sion. Postero–anterior and lateral cephalo-metric radiographs were taken for each adolescent, and twenty cephalometric radi-ographic measurements (6 angular, 10 lin-ear and 4 ratio) were determined. Skeletal comparison between males and females showed that the angle of palatal plane inclination in relation to anterior cranial base (SN–PP) was significantly higher in females whereas the gonial angle (ArGo-Me) was significantly higher in males. For linear measurements, mandibular base len-gth (Go–Gn) showed no significant sex differences. The remaining linear measure-ments showed significant sex differences with the males having higher values. All ratios showed no significant differences between males and females.

Abstract: The current study was performed to investigate the possible association bet-ween nasopharyngeal airway inadequacy due to enlarged adenoid and some dento-alveoular characteristics in subjects 3–17 years old in Mosul City. Twenty four patients (12 males and12 females) were randomly selected from patients who admitted to Ear Nose and Throat Department at Al–Zahrawi Teach-ing Hospital in Mosul City and who indi-cated for adenoidectomy to relieve severe nasal obstruction. Sixteen variables were recorded and analyzed using Statistical Pa-ckage for Social Sciences system loaded on Pentium IV computer. The results proved that a significant correlation existed between nasopharyn-geal airway inadequacy due to enlarged adenoid and some dentoalveoular charac-teristics and females were having high inc-idence of tonsillar enlargement than males.

Abstract: The aims of this study were to evalu-ate the effect of orthodontic treatment on root length (ratios of root length after / be-fore treatment) of the upper anterior teeth after correction of Class II division 1 inci-sal relation, to evaluate the time of treat-ment and its effect on root resorption and to show if there is any risk of root resorp-tion in relation to sex. The sample was composed of 25 pat-ients (15 females and 10 males) 15–25 ye-ars old age. All patients were treated with 22×30 slot brackets fixed stainless steel Roth system appliances after extraction of bilateral maxillary first premolars. The ca-nines were retracted individually along the base arch wire with power chain elastics that were changed every 1 week, then the four upper incisors were retracted with ve-rtical loops. The results of periapical radiograph measurements before and after treatment indicated that there were a noticeable apic-al root resorption with blunted irregular apex after the completion of orthodontic treatment. The incisor roots were affected more than the canines. In addition, there were no gender differences in root resor-ption between males and females (except upper left lateral incisor). The mean treat-ment time from beginning to end of treat-ment and obtaining Class I incisal relation was 21.4 months.