Summary

The end of the year is usually a period when many people like to summarise their achievements and make future plans. I've been using google analytics for slightly more than 3 months now. It's really great to be able to see the statistics about one's blog.

Dental-materials.blogspot.com had exactly 1000 visits between Sept 21 and Dec 25 from 72 countries/territories. The list of top 10 countries with the greatest number of visits includes the USA, India, Egypt, Germany, Indonesia, Canada, Turkey and Iran.




Of 702 absolute uniqe visitors, about one third were returning visitors with more than 300 visits :-) The average time on site was 00:02:26 with an average of 1.90 Pages/Visit.

More than half of all visits came through search engines, Google being the most popular, as expected. About the same number of visits came as direct traffic and from referring sites, such as blogger.com, twitter.com, blogcatalog.com, linkedin.com, facebook.com etc.



Interestingly, this blog appeared in search engines not just when 'dental materials' were used as keywords. In fact, the visitors of this blog entered more than 400 keywords, such as 'dental materials journal', 'mta dental material', 'filtek silorane', 'mta in endodontics', 'free dental material journal', 'books of dental materials' etc.

So, it's been an exciting period for dental-materials.blospot.com and I hope this blog will be even better in the future. I'd like to thank all the visitors and wish Merry Christmas and a very happy and prosperous New Year.

News from jobs.co.uk

PhD Scholarship

Manufacturing And Characterisation Of Titanium Based Dental Implant

University of Sheffield - Department of Mechanical Engineering

Application deadline: 07 January 2010.

Call for abstracts: 88th General Session & Exhibition of the IADR

88th General Session & Exhibition of the IADR
Barcelona, Spain, July 14-17, 2010.
www.iadr.org

Abstracts can be submitted online HERE. The deadline for abstract submission is February 5, 2010. As on previous IADR conferences, one person may present only one abstract but can be co-author on an unlimited number of abstracts.

More than 4500 delegates are expected and more than 3000 abstracts submitted. There will be oral and poster discussions as well as traditional poster sessions. All delegates will receive continuing education credits according to the ADA CERP.

The new way of abstract presentation is through poster discussion sessions designed for up to 7 individual presentations. Abstracts in these sessions will be presented as posters with up to 3 PowerPoint slides in addition. Each presentation will last for 5 minutes followed by 2 minutes of discussion.

Posters will be displayed vertically, rather than horizontally. Poster dimensions will be 0.93 m (width) x 2.22 m (height).

There will be more than 20 subject areas including dental materials, cariology, dental anesthesiology, implantology, microbiology, mineralized tissue, neuroscience/TMJ, oral&maxillofacial surgery, periodontology, prosthodontics, pharmacology, pulp biology etc.

More information and detailed instructions can be found HERE.

Poll: What type of adhesive system do you use in your practice?

Please, select one or more answers from the poll in the sidebar.

Adhesive systems are nowadays classified according to the number of clinical application steps and adhesion strategy. This is one of the most widely accepted classifications in both clinical practice and scientific literature.



(a) Three-step etch-and-rinse systems: acid etching with phosphoric acid followed by the application of primer and bond from separate bottles;
(b) Two-step etch-and-rinse systems: acid etching with phosphoric acid followed by the application of primer and bond which are in one bottle;
(c) Two-step self-etch systems: self-etching primer and bond are in separate bottles;
(d) One-step self-etch systems (also known as "all-in-one" systems): all components are in one bottle

Feel free to leave a comment about your experience with any particular adhesive system.

In clinical practice, I'm using a two-step etch-and-rinse system. In PhD research, I've studied the degree of conversion and elution of unreacted monomers from a wide range of adhesive systems. Some of these results have been published in scientific dental journals and some are in press and will be published soon.

Though one-step (all-in-one) self-etch systems are currently marketed, results from many in vivo and in vitro studies suggest that these systems often have inferior properties compared to two-step self-etch and etch-and-rinse systems

Textbook of Restorative Dentistry

It is my pleasure and honour to announce that the Textbook of Restorative Dentistry (original title: Osnovi restaurativne stomatologije) has been published by my professors at Belgrade University School of Dentistry Dept. of Restorative Dentistry and Endodontics: Slavoljub Zivkovic, Mirjana Vujaskovic, Katarina Pap, Djurica Grga, Aleksandra Lukic and Nevenka Teodorovic.

This is the official textbook for undergradute students but may be very helpful to dental practitioners who have some questions regarding restorative procedure.

The book is divided in four parts. Part I presents the biology of pulp-dentine complex, its ultrastructure, but also important physiological and biochemical aspects. This chapter also explains the basics of caries etiology, pathogenesis and diagnostics.

Part II details the equipment and instruments for restorative treatment as well as techniques for caries removal.

Part III explains cavity preparation procedures according to traditional Black's principles and the adhesive cavity preparation for resin-based materials. Cavity preparation for indirect restorations is also explained. Some basic gnatological requirements in restorative treatment are mentioned in Part III.

Part IV addresses all dental materials in restorative dentistry. It contains basic clinical characteristics of materials for temporary fillings, for pulp cappings, amalgam, glass-ionomer cements, resin-based composite materials and adhesive systems as well as materials for indirect restorations.

News from jobs.ac.uk

Research Fellow in Tooth and Peridontal Tissue/Biomechanics/Biomedical Engineering
(Click for more information)

Faculty of Engineering

University of Leeds - School of Mechanical Engineering

Salary: £29,704 to £35,469. It is likely that an appointment will be made at or below £31,513 p.a.

Application deadline: 8 December 2009

Wiley-Blackwell books: Dental Materials at a Glance [20% off]

A couple of days ago, I got an email from Wiley-Blackwell offering certain dental books at discount, 20% off the original price.

Among the books at discount is "Dental Materials at a Glance" by J. Anthony von Fraunhofer, Professor Emeritus at the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery Dental School, University of Maryland and formerly was Professor and Director of Biomaterials Science in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery.

I'm not quite sure why I got this offer, either because I subscribed to the newsletter from Wiley-Blackwell or because I already purchased at least one book. Anyway, I'm considering to buy Dental Materials at a Glance since it's now only $27.19. Having bought another book from this "At a Glance" series (Medical Statistics at a Glance), I assume this book about dental materials is written in a similar succinct and readable way with many useful illustrations.

It contains 28 chapters on 72 pages, i.e. 2-3 pages per chapter, which seems to be the pattern for all books from this series. According to the table of contents, the first part looks like a glossary of scientific terms relevant to any dental materials scientist. The second part seems to be a short overview of important properties of contemporary dental materials. There's also a free downloadable chapter HERE.