IMPORTANT DEFINITIONS
1) EPIDEMIOLOGY: (John M.Last 1988)
The study of the distribution and determinants of health related states or events in specified populations, and the application of this study to the control of health problems.
2) INCIDENCE:
The number of new cases of a specific disease occurring in a defined population during a specified period of time.
Incidence=the number of new cases of a specific disease during a given time period/the population at risk
3)PREVALENCE:
Indicate all current cases (both old and new) existing in a given population at a given point of time, or over a period of time.
4) COHORT:
Group of people who share a common characteristic or experience within a defined time period (e.g.,occupation,exposure to a drug or vaccine ,pregnancy, insured persons,etc.)
5) HEALTH:
Health is state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.
6) HEALTH EDUCATION:
It is process that informs, motivates and helps people to adopt and maintain healthy practices and lifestyles, advocates environmental changes as needed to facilitate this goals and conducts professional training and research to the same end.
7) BIOSTATISTICS:
Biostatistics is defined as the branch of statistics concerned with mathematical facts and data relating to biological events.
8) DENTAL CARIES:
Dental caries is defined as an irreversible microbial disease of the calcified tissues of teeth, characterize by dimeralisation of the inorganic portion and destruction of organic substance of the teeth.
9) PLANNING: (E.C. Banfield)
It is a systematic approach to defining the problem, setting priorities, developing specific goals and objectives and determining alternative strategies and methods of implementation.
10) SURVEY:
It is method of or collection of data, analyzing & evaluating them in order to determine the amount of disease problem in a community and also identify cases that have not been identified. Focus on population rather than an individual.
11) SAMPLING:
It is a process or technique of selecting a sample of appropriate characteristic and adequate size.
12) INDEX: (Russell A.L)
A numerical value describing the relative status of a population on a graduated scale with definite upper and lower limits, which is designed to permit and facilitate comparison with other populations classified by same criteria and methods.
13) DENTAL AUXILIARY:
A dental auxiliary is a person who is given responsibility by a dentist so that he or she can help the dentist render dental care, but who is not himself or herself qualified with a dental degree.
14) SCHOOL DENTAL NURSE:
This is an operating auxiliary, who is permitted to diagnose dental disease and to plan and carry out certain specified preventive and treatment measures including some operative procedures in the treatment of dental caries and periodontal disease in defined groups of people, usually school children.
15) DENTURIST:
Those dental laboratory technicians who are permitted to fabricate denture directly for patients without a dentist prescription.
16) ATRAUMATIC RESTORATIVE TREATMENT:
– (Jo E.Frencken, 2012) it is defined as a minimally invasive care approach in preventing dental caries and stopping its further progression.
-It is a procedure based on removing carious tooth tissues using hand instruments alone and restoring the cavity with an adhesive restorative material.
17) SAMPLING:
It is the process or technique of selecting a sample of appropriate characteristic and adequate size.
18) DENTAL PLAQUE:
Defined as a structured, resilient, yellow-grayish substance that adheres tenaciously to the intraoral hard surfaces, including removable and fixed restorations.
19) DENTAL CALCULUS:
Dental calculus is a hard deposit that forms by mineralization of dental plaque and is usually covered by a layer of unmineralized plaque.
20) HABIT:
Defined as tendency towards an act that has become repeated performance, relatively fixed, consistent and easy to perform by an individual.
21) GINGIVA:
It is the part of oral mucosa that covers the alveolar processes of the jaws and surrounds the neck of the teeth.
22) PUBLIC HEALTH:
Public health is people health. It is concerned with the aggregate health of a group, a community a state or a nation.
23) PRE-CANCEROUS CONDITION:
It is a generalized state associated with a significantly increased risk of cancer.
24) PRE-CANCEROUS LESION:
Defined as morphologically altered tissue in which cancer is more likely to develop than in its apparently normal counterparts.
25) PANDEMIC:
It is an epidemic usually affecting a large proportion of the population, occurring over a wide geographic area such as a nation, a continent or the world.