Journal articles on the topic 'Dental caries – examinations, questions, etc'

Early childhood caries (ECC) is an aggressive form of dental caries occurring in the first five years of life. Despite its prevalence and consequences, little progress has been made in its prevention and even less is known about individuals’ susceptibility or genomic risk factors. The genome-wide association study (GWAS) of ECC (“ZOE 2.0”) is a community-based, multi-ethnic, cross-sectional, genetic epidemiologic study seeking to address this knowledge gap. This paper describes the study’s design, the cohort’s demographic profile, data domains, and key oral health outcomes. Between 2016 and 2019, the study enrolled 8059 3–5-year-old children attending public preschools in North Carolina, United States. Participants resided in 86 of the state’s 100 counties and racial/ethnic minorities predominated—for example, 48% (n = 3872) were African American, 22% white, and 20% (n = 1611) were Hispanic/Latino. Seventy-nine percent (n = 6404) of participants underwent clinical dental examinations yielding ECC outcome measures—ECC (defined at the established caries lesion threshold) prevalence was 54% and the mean number of decayed, missing, filled surfaces due to caries was eight. Nearly all (98%) examined children provided sufficient DNA from saliva for genotyping. The cohort’s community-based nature and rich data offer excellent opportunities for addressing important clinical, epidemiologic, and biological questions in early childhood.

Relevance. Orthodontic pathology contributes to the deterioration of the hygienic condition of the oral cavity in children and increases the risk of developing dental caries and inflammatory periodontal diseases. In this regard, rational and effective oral hygiene becomes especially relevant. Aim of this study is to analyze the results of a questionnaire of children with orthodontic pathology regarding the skills of individual oral hygiene and oral hygiene products they use. Materials and methods. A dental examination of 138 children aged from 14 to 17 years with orthodontic pathology was carried out. Before starting the treatment, the children filled out a specially developed questionnaire that contained 20 questions with suggested answer options. The children were surveyed in the presence of parents; the children answered the questions independently by filling out a Google form, parents were not allowed to intrude into the survey. Results. 73 children (52.9%) followed the recommendations to brush their teeth twice a day in the morning and in the evening. 47 (34.1%) children reported about brushing their teeth in the morning only and 6 (4,3%) children brushed their teeth in the evening. 35 (25.4%) children admitted that they did not brush their teeth every day. 76 children (55.1%), i.e. more than half, were fount to spend no more than 1 minute for toothbrushing, another 35 surveyed children (25.4%) indicated that their brushing time, as a rule, did not exceed 2 minutes, and only 25 children (18.1%) followed the recommended time of 3-5 minutes. Among all the participants, 53 children (38.4%) regularly brushed their teeth after meals, 28 (20.3%) – before meals. 57 children (41.3%) reported no established order between meals and oral routine in the morning, some of them said that oral hygiene might depend on food, others paid no attention to the sequence between meal and oral hygiene. 66 (47.8%) children are not interested in the immediate result of the performed cleaning, 42 children (30.4%) received some information about the quality of oral cavity care only at a dentist’s appointment, 30 children (21.7%) monitored the state of oral hygiene by using mirror without the additional dye indicators. The vast majority of children, 57.2%, used a manual toothbrush for oral hygiene, 31 children (22.5%) reported about regular use of an electric toothbrush, and 28 children (20.3%) indicated for periodic alternation regarding the use of toothbrushes of one or another type of teeth. 58 children (42.0%) indicated that the main motivational incentives for choosing brushes were their design and colour, while 33 (23.9%) and 24 (17,4%) children chose brushes based on the advice of their dentists or parents, respectively. 15 children (10.9%) chose toothbrushes without attaching any importance to this. Every 2-3 months, 67 children (48.6%) replaced a worn-out toothbrush with a new one, every 4-6 months – 27 children (19.6%), 40 children (29.0%) were not interested in the replacement period. All the participants used toothpaste, but half of them, namely, 70 children (50.7%), were guided by its organoleptic properties, colour, package design, etc. when choosing paste; 49 children (35.5%) followed the recommendations of dentists, while 11 children (8.0%) did not think about what toothpaste to choose. Toothpastes with complex action or anti-caries activity were used by 44 (31.9%) and 40 (29.0%) children, respectively, but 22 children (15.9%) did not pay any attention to toothpaste composition, indications and contraindication. Some children are informed about interdental hygiene products. Thus, 21 children (15.2%) reported about regular use of dental floss for interdental cleaning, 12 children (8.7%) also used it, but only occasionally, 26 children (18.8%) indicated that they used an irrigator, but at the same time 105 children (76.1%) never used dental floss, and 112 (81.2%) used an irrigator. Conclusion. According to the results of the questionnaire, the level of awareness of children with orthodontic pathology about rational and effective individual oral hygiene routine and products is far from being completely satisfactory. The development of additional oral hygiene recommendations for children with such problems seems appropriate and necessary.

The study aims to examine correlations between nutrition status with different factors and dental caries of preschool children in rural areas of Vietnam. A big data based on a total of 690 children (356 boys and 334 girls), aged 2–5 years, living in Van Xuan commune, were thoroughly analyzed. Oral examinations were performed by dentists with the assistance of nursery teachers and the research team. Caries was diagnosed using criteria established by the International Caries Detection and Assessment System (ICDAS). The examined children and their parents responded to questions pertaining to dental hygiene practices. The nutrition status of preschool children was determined by the World Health Organization (WHO) standards in 2006. There are factors which have effects on the malnutrition status of children in the research. The prevalence of dental caries also contributed importantly to assess children’s development. In this study, the stunting groups have a higher ratio of caries compared to the others. Children’s morphology and nutritional status are associated with dental caries among the preschool children in Van Xuan commune, Vinh Tuong district, Vinh Phuc province.

Background: Early childhood caries (ECC) is major oral health problem of young children. Risk factors for ECC are poor oral hygiene and feeding practices. Prevalence and severity of ECC is increasing with change in lifestyle and diet pattern in developing countries. Objectives: To assess the association between feeding practices and severity of early childhood caries in preschool children. Methods: An analytical cross-sectional study was conducted with convenient sample of 96 children up to six years age in Peoples Dental College from July to December 2020. Clinical examination included the recording of dental caries (dmft) using WHO criteria. The self-validated questionnaire consisting seven questions about feeding practices was asked to mothers. The Chi-square test was performed to determine association between severity of ECC and feeding pattern. Results: Mean dmft was 6.77 ± 5.91. Prevalence of severe-ECC (S-ECC) was highest in youngest age group. Caries experience was similar in breast fed, bottle fed, and mixed. There was no significant difference in non-severe ECC and ECC in relation to duration of breast or bottle feeding but frequency of night feeding was associated with S-ECC. Children given ready-made infant formula solid food had more S-ECC (13, 92%) compared to non-severe ECC (1, 7.1%) which was statistically significant. Children given homemade gram flour food were noted to have less of S-ECC (5, 27.5%) than nonsevere ECC (13, 72.5%) which was statistically significant. Conclusion: Present study revealed that multiple night feeding and weaning with readymade food are significant factors for S-ECC.

<br/><b>Purpose</b> - The aim of this study was to use probabilistic graphical models to determine dental caries risk factors in three-year-old children. The analysis was conducted on the basis of the questionnaire data and resulted in building probabilistic graphical models to investigate dependencies among the features gathered in the surveys on dental caries. <br/><b>Materials and Methods</b> - The data available in this analysis came from dental examinations conducted in children and from a questionnaire survey of their parents or guardians. The data represented 255 children aged between 36 and 48 months. Self-administered questionnaires contained 34 questions of socioeconomic and medical nature such as nutritional habits, wealth, or the level of education. The data included also the results of oral examination by a dentist. We applied the Bayesian network modeling to construct a model by learning it from the collected data. The process of Bayesian network model building was assisted by a dental expert. <br/><b>Results</b> - The model allows to identify probabilistic relationships among the variables and to indicate the most significant risk factors of dental caries in three-year-old children. The Bayesian network model analysis illustrates that cleaning teeth and falling asleep with a bottle are the most significant risk factors of dental caries development in three-year-old children, whereas socioeconomic factors have no significant impact on the condition of teeth. <br/><b>Conclusions</b> - Our analysis results suggest that dietary and oral hygiene habits have the most significant impact on the occurrence of dental caries in three-year-olds.

Aim According to the World Health Organization (WHO), early childhood caries (ECC) is still considered a major global health problem despite the general improvement in oral health practice. This study aimed to assess ECC’s prevalence, severity, and key social and behavioral determinants in Iranian children 1–5- years of age. Method This cross-sectional study recruited Iranian 1–5-year-olds with a three-stage stratified clustered sampling method. After providing consent, parents were interviewed using a validated questionnaire, including questions on child characteristics and behavioral factors. Each child underwent a dental examination by one of four trained and calibrated dentists. Associations between key covariates of interest and primary outcome measures were assessed by multivariable logistic regression modeling and multivariate generalized negative binomial regression modeling after weightings were applied. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS V25 and Stata V14.2 software packages. A p-value ≤ 0.05 was considered significant. Results The mean age of 909 participants was 41.1±1.2 months, 48.6% were male, and 38.1% lived in rural areas. The overall prevalence of ECC was 53.2% and mean dmft score was 2.7± 0.3. Key determinants associated with ECC included living rurally (p = 0.009, OR = 2.13), consuming sweet drinks, sugary snacks, or both [p-value = 0.02 (OR = 2.53), and p-value<0.001 (OR = 4.96), respectively], and visible plaque (p<0.001, OR = 3.41). Covariates associated with dmft scores included residing in rural regions (p = 0.02, IRR = 1.31), having both sugary snacks and sweet drinks (p = 0.02, IRR = 1.85) compared to those had none, and visible dental plaque (p<0.001, IRR = 2.06). Conclusions The prevalence of dental caries in children is high in Iran. The increase of ECC prevalence and severity from toddlers to preschoolers emphasizes on the critical importance of early interventions in toddlers. Improving access to care for rural children is essential along with the need to change dietary and self-care behaviors through multilevel efforts.

ABSTRACT Objective: To test the hypothesis that malocclusion does not have an independent and negative effect on quality of life of adolescents. Materials and Methods: The cross-sectional design study comprised a sample of 519 children, aged 11 to 14 years, attending public schools in Osorio, a city in southern Brazil. One calibrated examiner carried out clinical examinations and recorded dental caries (decayed/missing/filled teeth), malocclusion (Dental Aesthetic Index), and dental trauma. Participants completed the Brazilian version of the Child Perceptions Questionnaire (CPQ11–14), Impact Short Form, and their parents or guardians answered questions about socioeconomic status. Simple and multivariate linear regressions were performed to assess covariates for the overall CPQ11–14 scores. Results: Greater impacts on oral health–related quality of life were observed for girls (P = .007), children with a lower household income (P = .016), those living in nonnuclear families (P &lt; .001), and those with more decayed/missing/filled teeth (P = .001). Malocclusion was also associated with oral health–related quality of life: the severity of malocclusion was significantly related to higher scores of CPQ11–14 even after scores were adjusted for control variables. CPQ11–14 increased by approximately 1 point for each increase in the severity of malocclusion. Conclusions: Malocclusion has a negative effect on adolescents' quality of life, independent of dental caries or traumatic dental injuries. Socioeconomic inequalities and clinical conditions are important features in adolescents' quality of life.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to consider the potential association between the formation of bucall mucusa streptococcus biofilms and a high DMFT index, as well as the occurrence of antibiotic resistance among adult patients in Sana'a, Yemen. Study design: A total of 100; 34-85 year old. Clinical examinations of patients were performed to estimate dental caries experience with the Silness-Loe index, as well as bucall mucusa swabs were collected to assess biofilm production by the phenotypic method, i.e., tissue culture palate methods (TCPM). Finally, the antibiogram susceptibility pattern of isolated S. mutans was done by the Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method for L-Lactam antibiotics (as ampicillin and penicillin) and non-L-Lactam antibiotics (clindamycin, erythromycin, lincomycin, and vancomycin). Results: When isolated S. mutans were exposed to biofilm detection by the TCP method, 1 (1.2%) showed strong biofilm formation capacity, 71 (86.6%) showed moderate biofilm formation capacity, and 10 (12.2%) showed non/weak formation capacity of biofilm. There was an escalation in the rate of formation of S. mutans biofilms with an increased degree of caries index. The S. mutans biofilms positively showed a higher rate of resistance than non/weak biofilm formation, e.g., ampicillin (91.1% versus 8.9%, p <0x7E> 0.0001), tetracycline (87.8% versus 12.2%, p <0x7E> 0.0001), and co-trimoxazole (90%% versus 10%, p <0x7E> 0.0001), etc. Conclusion: The present study proved that S. mutans is still the major bacteria isolated from the oral cavity, but few persons might not have a significant number of S. mutans in the oral cavity. The S. mutans biofilm producers were more able to cause dental caries compared to the S. mutans biofilm non-producers. Drug-resistant factor in the S. mutans isolates was found to be associated with S. mutans biofilm formation.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the association of school failure among Brazilian adolescents with social conditions and aspects of oral health through hierarchical analysis. METHODS: A state-wide survey of 5,558 adolescents from the state of São Paulo, Brazil, inquired about the sociodemographic and social capital of participants by using a structured questionnaire. Trained and calibrated professionals performed intraoral examinations and interviews in the households. Questions about the access to dentist, reason for and frequency of using dental services, toothache episodes and impact of oral conditions on daily activities (OIDP) were applied. Oral examinations evaluated caries experience, tooth losses, periodontal problems, presence of open bite, and maxillary and mandibular overjet. School failure was estimated according to the teenagers’ years of schooling. The independent variables were grouped into three blocks: sociodemographic and economic characteristics, social capital and oral health aspects. The multiple hierarchical logistic regression model was used to identify the factors associated with school failure. RESULTS: Of the total sample, information about schooling of 5,162 adolescents was obtained, of whom 29.6% presented school failure. We found that adolescents over the age of 16 years who did not declare themselves as white, female, with feelings of insecurity, unhappiness, with toothache, caries, tooth losses, affected by dentofacial and/or periodontal changes, were more likely to fail at school. CONCLUSION: Oral disorders and social factors were associated with school failure in adolescents. A successful school trajectory was a strong determinant of health, therefore actions between the educational and health sectors must be developed for adolescents, especially those with this profile.

Pregnant women have one of the highest risks of dental disease [3]. According to a number of authors, during the physiological course of pregnancy, the prevalence of dental caries is 91.4%, periodontal tissue diseases occur in 90% of cases, lesions of previously intact teeth with a predominantly acute course of the carious process - in 38% of pregnant patients [5 ]. Secondary caries, progression of the carious process, enamel hyperesthesia occurs in 79% of pregnant women [11]. At the same time, the intensity of the increase in dental caries in terms of the absolute increase in the index of caries-filling-removal during the gestational period is 0.83 [2]. In 50% of pregnant women and women in labor, the so-called gingivitis of pregnant women is observed during the normal course of the gestational period already at 2-3 months of pregnancy [12]. From the second half of pregnancy, the pathological process becomes more pronounced and more often proceeds as a generalized catarrhal or hypertrophic gingivitis, and pyogenic granuloma often develops. As pregnancy progresses, periodontal disease progresses continuously, and only in the postpartum period does the clinical picture improve [4]. In the long term, gingivitis that occurs during pregnancy becomes chronic [9, 10]. In a pregnant woman, against the background of altered reactivity and reduced body resistance, latent odontogenic foci of infection can lead to serious complications as a result of exacerbation of the inflammatory process [7, 8]. The greatest severity of inflammatory phenomena in periodontal tissues occurs in the second trimester of pregnancy, and the critical increase in the cariogenic situation in the oral cavity occurs in the third trimester [4, 2], which not only determines the optimal timing of dental examinations during pregnancy and the postpartum period, but also the differentiation of the approach to programs for the prevention and treatment of the most significant diseases of the oral cavity for this period of pregnancy. The decisive role in the development of caries and periodontitis in pregnant women belongs to hormonal substances (somatomammotropin, progesterone, gonadotropin) produced by the placenta, changes in mineral and protein metabolism, immunological status, oral microflora [1, 5]. The timing of the increased risk of the onset and progression of periodontal diseases, as well as the increase in the intensity of dental caries in pregnant women, is not enough to state; tires. This does not negate the significance of already established factors affecting the occurrence and development of dental caries, periodontal disease during pregnancy, but is aimed at competently combining diagnostically important known and newly identified criteria into a system of practical recommendations for identifying risk groups among pregnant women. on dental health and special monitoring of them. Immunoprotective peptides of biological media, including oral fluid, are markers of the intensity of local inflammation and are responsible for the implementation of innate antimicrobial immunity [6, 12]. In the oral fluid, a whole complex of immunoprotective peptides is isolated, among which lactoferrin, cathelicidin LL-37, and α-defensin are distinguished [14]. The inclusion of immunoprotective peptides in algorithms and models for ranking the risk of progression of dental caries during pregnancy will expand the boundaries of existing recommendations in this direction. When studying systemic immunity in pregnant women with periodontal diseases, oral fluid and peripheral blood are used as biological media [8]. At the same time, retroplacental blood and umbilical cord blood containing fetal and maternal blood, despite the easy method of selection after the birth of a child and placenta, not associated with invasive manipulations, is not used as a biological medium. Meanwhile, the determination of the spectrum of inflammatory mediators, the mineral composition of retroplacental and umbilical cord blood will allow answering the questions whether inflammation of the periodontal tissues of varying severity was accompanied by the "mother-placenta-fetus" system, whether it is possible to predict from the stage of childbirth in the future the appearance of caries of milk teeth? The purpose of this study is to optimize the system of providing dental care to pregnant women using clinical and laboratory indicators.

Background: A regular and balanced feeding is essential for the animals in order to maintain their normal physiological function and be productive at the desired level. Digestion activities start with chewing in the mouth and the healthy dental arch is needed to perform a complete chewing function. Abnormal dental development and other dental pathologies impair digestive functions by negatively affecting chewing functions. The aim of the present study was to classified dental anomalies, dental degenerations, dental and gingival lesions seen in dairy cows and was aimed to reveal these lesions and depending on these disorders the reasons for slaughtering in dairy cows.Materials, Methods & Results: The material of this study consists of 600 dairy cows, being slaughtered for a year, and 170 dairy cows, detected dental anomalies, dental degenerations and dental-gingival lesions in the postmortem examination. Detailed macroscopic and radiological examinations of mandibles and maxillae of the dairy cows with dental and gingival lesions in postmortem examination were performed. The detailed information of the cases, such as: age, race, breeding, living region and slaughtering causes, etc. of dairy cows, suffering from dental lesions was recorded from slaughterhouse data access. In this study, 87 cases (51.18%) of the determined dental lesions were defined as dental degeneration, 34 cases (20%) as caries, 30 cases (17.64%) as dental abnormalities in the formation and dental arch and 19 cases (11.18%) as periodontal inflammation.Discussion: In dairy cow breeding, there is a close relationship between production costs and business profitability and animal disease and fertility problems. Although the existence of negative effects of dental lesions directly on the digestive functions is known in dairy cattle breeding; there was no study about the state of dental diseases in dairy cow. In this respect, this research is quite important both for revealing the proportion of dental diseases seen in dairy cow and for drawing attention to the relationship between these diseases and the reasons for slaughtering of dairy cow. In this study, various dental anomalies, dental degenerations, dental and gingival lesions (28.33%) were detected in 170 dairy cows; The decreased milk production in 38 cases (22.35%), infertility in 65 cases (38.24%), gastrointestinal system diseases such as abomasal dislocation, constipation and indigestion in 38 cases (22.35%), foot diseases in 19 cases (11.18%) and economic reasons in 10 cases (5.88%) were determined as slaughtering reasons of the cases. The results of this research indicate that dental and gingival lesions may be regarded as preliminary results in the development of digestive system diseases, and then the various detailed clinical studies are needed to determine whether there is a relationship between digestive system diseases and dental diseases. As a result; this study first classified the dental lesions determined after slaughter in cattle and revealed the relationship between the reasons for slaughtering of dairy cows of the determined dental lesions. The results obtained in this study showed that dental anomalies, caries and periodontal inflammation effect significantly on the dairy cow fertility.

The present work is a case study of 8 bipolar patients under lithium therapy, being all of them members of the lithium group of the Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre. It describes the dental management of bipolar patients under lithium therapy, emphasizing dental caries and the clinical method of intervention. The work was divided into three phases, existing a ninety-day interval between each ofthem. In the first part ofthe research, dental examinations were carried out and the patients were interviewed with the special purpose of describing each one of them regarding his buccal health. They were also inquired about their experience in living with the bipolar disease, about the medication taken and its side effects. The patients received dental treatment according to the clinical method as they also attended health educational sessions destined to increase their autonomy up to the dental dismissal. In the second and third phases, the exams that had been carried out in the first phase were repeated in order to analyze the commitment of each bipolar patient to the proposed dental treatment. The questions about the relationship between the bipolar patient and the treatment of this disease were also repeated. It was concluded that the results of the dental exams were related to the degree of stabilization of the bipolar disease; the patients detaining the best results in the dental treatment were those who had the bipolar disease stabilized. It was concluded that, having in mind the occurrence frequency of bipolar disease, it would be plausible that a denfist who works in the Public Service sooner or later would attend bipolar patients; bipolar patients are a peculiar population group that need a specific dental program; the planning and scheduling of these specific odontological programs for bipolars should take into account the disruptions in the dental therapy, caused by the disease and it is also necessary to renegotiate with the bipolar, his responsibilities and his motivation for buccal self-care, which will result in more frequent dental visits.

Aims The overall aim of this study was to determine whether general dental practitioners (GDPs) in West Sussex were aware of and followed National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines on dental recalls. The study also aimed to identify factors in the GDPs’ practice of dentistry that could affect their adherence to NICE guidelines and to gain some insight into their views on this topic and how these might affect their adherence. Methods A postal questionnaire, which had previously been piloted, and an explanatory letter were sent to a random sample of 195 GDPs representing 50% of the GDPs contracted to the West Sussex Primary Care Trust. Those who did not respond were sent the questionnaire and letter for a second time. The questionnaire consisted of 50 questions that covered awareness of, attitudes towards and adherence to the NICE guidelines on dental recalls, risk factors, and the GDPs’ practising profile. Resulting data were entered into a database and, where appropriate, statistically tested with the chi-square test, with the level of statistical probability set at P<0.5. Results Data were obtained from the 50 questions in the questionnaires. Only key results are presented in this abstract. Ten of the 195 GDPs had either moved away from the area or were orthodontists. The final sample was therefore 185, of whom 117 returned questionnaires, a response rate of 63%. Seventy-three per cent of the respondents had qualified in United Kingdom. Sixty-five per cent were male. The mean age of respondents was 43 years. Seventy-one per cent worked as GDPs within the General Dental Services (GDS) or Personal Dental Services. Concerning NICE recall guidelines, 94% stated that they were aware of them, 61% said they agreed with them, and 64% that they adhered to them. Female GDPs were statistically far more likely to state that they followed NICE guidelines ( P=0.0043). Seventy per cent of GDPs reported that they still recalled their patients at six-month intervals and only 3% that they recalled their patients according to need. Eighty-five per cent reported taking radiographs at two-year intervals and/or according to patient need, and 68% that they gave oral hygiene advice six monthly or at every recall. Risk assessments were reported as being always carried out by 65% of responding GDPs for caries, 83% for periodontal disease, and 81% for oral cancer. Ninety per cent reported that they thought risk factors were relevant when setting the recall interval and 82% thought that six-monthly recalls allowed appropriate screening to take place. Conclusions Only 3% of responding GDPs recalled their patients according to patient need, in line with NICE recall guidelines, although the majority of GDPs agreed with the guidelines and stated that they adhered to them; however, this was in contrast to the 70% of GDPs who continued to recall at six-month intervals. The majority of GDPs thought that less frequent recalls would not allow for early caries, periodontal disease and oral malignancy diagnosis, and did not think that access to NHS dentistry would be improved. They also did not believe that excessive NHS money was spent on over-frequent dental examinations. There would appear to be significant obstacles to altering the recall habits of dentists because of the way that dentists practise.

Background: The occupational hazards faced by salt pan workers during their occupation are myriad, a fact compounded by the lack of basic amenities at their workplace and lack of awareness regarding usage of personal protection equipment.Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out among fifty-six salt pan workers in Marakkanam, Tamil Nadu to assess their common health problems and a qualitative component was added to assess their felt needs in work place and daily living. Data was collected using pre-designed data collection sheet for assessing the common morbidities. For the qualitative aspect of the study, in-depth interviews were conducted among twenty workers based on convenient sampling, using open ended questions. Data was collected after obtaining informed consent and steps were taken to ensure confidentiality at all stages.Results: The most common health problem of the workers in present study area included dental caries (41.7%), skin conditions (38.1%) musculoskeletal problems (36.7%) and anemia (35.1%) being other significant health problems. The qualitative aspect of the study revealed that the felt needs were improvement of their working conditions and more social support from the Government and the employers. There was very little awareness among the workers regarding use of PPE and none of them used any form of PPE.Conclusions: Salt pan workers had dental problems, dermatological problems and musculoskeletal problems as most common morbidities among them. Harsh working conditions, financial insecurity etc. are some of their work-related problems. Provision of housing facility and financial assistance during off- season by the government, basic amenities at the work place, paid leave in case of injuries, and insurance schemes for them by employer are their main felt needs. They also had no awareness regarding usage of personal protective equipment at the work place.

Introduction: Oral disorders such as Traumatic Dental Injury (TDI) and Early Childhood Caries (ECC) can significantly impact the functional, social, and psychological well-being of growing children and their families. The Early Childhood Oral Health Impact Scale (ECOHIS) serves as a proxy assessment of Oral Health-Related Quality of Life (OHRQoL) in children, developed to evaluate the effects on the quality of life of preschool children. Aim: To assess the impact of oral disorders on the OHRQoL of children aged two to six years and their families. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, a total of 1000 children aged 2 to 6 years from various preschools in South Bangalore were selected. All children underwent examinations for caries, stains, and fractures. A modified questionnaire survey based on ECOHIS, consisting of 26 questions, was completed by the parents of the children. The answered questionnaire was then evaluated to assess the impact of dental conditions on the quality of life of both children and parents. Kruskal-Wallis Test, Dunn’s post-hoc Test, and Mann-Whitney Test were used to compare the mean scores of different domains of the OHRQoL scale based on ECC and dental trauma, respectively. Results: The severity of ECC demonstrated an adverse effect on the symptom domain (p<0.001), function domain (p=0.002), psychology domain (p=0.03), and the entire score of the Child Impact Section (CIS) (p<0.001). In the Family Impact Section (FIS), the mean scores of the family distress domain and the overall FIS were statistically significant (p<0.001). Dental trauma also showed an adverse effect on the symptoms domain (p<0.001) and the entire scores of the CIS (p=0.001). Additionally, the mean scores of the family distress domain and the overall FIS were statistically significant (p<0.001). Conclusion: The presence of ECC and dental trauma is likely to have a negative impact on the physical, psychological, and emotional well-being of preschool-aged children and their families.

Early childhood dental caries is the most prevalent disease in childhood. Paediatricians are considered by parents as the main authority on prevention and treatment of all the health requirements of their infants. AimThe aim of this study was to evaluate the knowledge and practice of paediatricians in promoting oral and dental health among young patients (under age 36 months) and their parents.Materials and methods145 anonymous questionnaires were distributed among paediatricians, 130 of them were 90% or above answered and were suitable for analysis for this study.75% of the questionnaires were distributed during the national convention of the Israeli Association of Clinical Paediatrics, 10% in paediatric ambulatory clinics and 15% in paediatric departments in hospitals. Questionnaires were distributed between 2018 and 2020. The inclusion criteria were physicians specialists in paediatrics or residents in paediatrics, all have Israeli licences to practice in Israel. exclusion criteria were partially filled questionnaires. The questionnaire was validated in a pilot study during the years 2010–2012. In addition to demographic variables that included medical training, post-graduate education and clinical practice the questionnaire included 42 questions. Eleven questions on demographics and amount of dental training during academic and clinical training 31 questions belonged to several sections that referred to the participants’ awareness of the AAP guidelines regarding oral and dental health and knowledge of oral health. In each section paediatricians were asked to answer or give an opinion on a specific issue, their answers were coded to scores on a scale of 0–5 and summed per section. Correlations between different variables were analysed. The t-test and Mann-Whitney U test were performed for comparing two variables. For comparing more than two variables, we used the Kruskal-Wallis one-way analysis of variance test or ANOVA.ResultsThe response rate was 89% (130 questionnaires out of 145). The survey showed that most paediatricians (80%) recognized their role in maintaining the oral and dental health of their young patients. Nevertheless, most admitted that they do not perform simple procedures on a regular basis, like dental examinations (64.6%), or asking parents about feeding habits (59.2%) or teeth brushing (75.4%). Only 21% of the participants expressed adequate knowledge of dental care for children younger than age 3 years. Fifty-eight percent of the participants never had any dental training during their entire paediatric medicine training, including medical school. Paediatricians in private or baby clinics received higher scores in practicing caries prevention, 24.15 ± 5.17 (SD), than paediatricians in hospitals, 2.79 ± 0.54 (SD) (p = 0.006). Caries prevention practice was not found to correlate with paediatricians’ knowledge or attitudes regarding oral and dental caries prevention.ConclusionOral and dental knowledge should be incorporated into the paediatric medicine curriculum. With their heavy workload, paediatricians generally do not implement dental caries risk assessment and counselling.

Abstract Background In many developing countries, the prevalence of dental caries has increased due to lifestyle changes, lack of preventive services, and inadequate access to dental care. In Arab countries, the increased prevalence of caries has correlated with economic growth over the past decades, resulting in greater access to unhealthy foods and higher consumption of sugar, particularly among children. However, few studies have assessed caries prevalence among pediatric populations in Arab countries. The objective of this study was to assess the prevalence of dental caries and factors associated with caries among children in Tripoli, Libya. Methods This cross-sectional study included a convenience sample of 1934 children in first grade (age 6–7 years, n = 1000) and seventh grade (age 11–12 years, n = 934). Four health centers in Tripoli were selected for screening based on location and participation in school-entry health examinations. Data were collected through self-administered parent surveys and visual dental screenings by trained examiners from September 24 to October 15, 2019. The survey comprised questions about socioeconomic characteristics and oral health behaviors, including toothbrushing, sugar consumption, and dental care history. During screenings, untreated decay, missing teeth, and filled teeth (DMFT or dmft) were recorded. Prevalence of tooth decay was calculated as the proportion of children with high DMFT/dmft scores. Binary logistic and negative binomial regression analyses (with significance at p ≤ 0.05) were used to assess factors associated with caries. Results Among 1000 first-grade children, 78.0% had decay in their primary teeth, with a mean dmft of 3.7. Among 934 seventh-grade children, 48.2% had caries in their permanent teeth, with a mean DMFT of 1.7. The most significant factors associated with caries prevalence were socioeconomic, such as screening site (first grade, p = 0.02; seventh grade, p < 0.001) and maternal employment (seventh grade, p = 0.02), and behavioral, such as toothbrushing duration (seventh grade, p = 0.01), past dental treatment (both grades, p < 0.001), and past emergency visit (both grades, p < 0.001). Conclusions Caries prevalence was associated with several behavioral and socioeconomic factors, including screening site, maternal employment, toothbrushing duration, past dental treatment, and past emergency visit. Efforts should be made to address these factors to minimize barriers and improve oral health behavior and care utilization. These findings can be used to evaluate current public health initiatives and inform future planning.

Abstract Background We aimed to assess oral health and oral hygiene status among visually impaired adolescents and also to evaluate the factors related to their oral health. Methods This was a cross-sectional study among 130 visually impaired adolescents in Tehran, Iran, in December 2018. Of three schools for visually impaired children in Tehran, children in the sixth to the tenth grade (aged 12–17 years) were included after obtaining their parents’ consent. WHO oral health questionnaire for children was filled out through face to face interviews. General characteristics were age, gender, status of visual impairment, place of residence, and parental education level. Oral health-related questions were perceived dental and gingival health, dental self-care, dental visits, medical conditions, and dietary habits. Oral examinations included Decayed, Missing, and Filled Teeth (DMFT) index, the Simplified Oral Hygiene Index (OHI‑S), and Bleeding on Probing (BOP). Univariate and multiple logistic regression tests were applied using STATA. Results The mean age (SD) of the adolescents was 14.45 (1.61) years. The fully blind children were 33.8%, and those with low vision were 66.2%. Regarding the perception of dental and gingival health, nearly half of the adolescents were satisfied. The mean DMFT and decayed component (DT) were 2.43 ± 2.24 and 1.92 ± 2.12, respectively. The frequency of DMFT ≥ 3 was 45.4%. The mean OHI-S was 2.01 ± 0.70, and OHI-S > 1.8 was reported in 60% of children. The prevalence of BOP was 79.2%. DMFT was significantly associated with toothache (P = 0.003, OR = 3.70, 95% CI: 1.54–9.09), perceived dental health (P = 0.005, OR = 3.06, 95% CI: 1.40–6.67), and medical conditions (P = 0.03, OR = 3.13, 95% CI: 1.13–8.68). In addition, OHI-S was related to gender (P = 0.02, OR = 0.36, 95% CI: 0.15–0.83), perceived dental health (P = 0.006, OR = 2.87, 95% CI: 1.35–6.12) and medical conditions (P = 0.04, OR = 3.05, 95% CI: 1.04–8.97). BOP was associated with perceived gingival health (P = 0.02, OR = 2.94, 95% CI: 1.18–7.33). Conclusions Medical conditions and perceived dental and gingival health are possible predictors for oral health status in these adolescents. Although these children could not visualize caries or gingival bleeding during the brushing time, they could perceive the status of their oral health correctly. Also, being involved in medical problems can make more ignorance of oral health.

Photo by 187929822 © Victor Moussa | Dreamstime.com INTRODUCTION The nonconsensual taking of a human organ to use in transplantation medicine violates ethical principles, including autonomy, informed consent, and human rights, as well as criminal laws. When such an organ harvesting is not just nonconsensual, but performed in a way that causes a death or uses the pretense of brain death without meeting the criteria, it also violates the dead donor[1] rule.[2] The dead donor rule is both ethical and legal. It prevents organ retrieval that would predictably cause the death of the organ donor.[3] Retrieval of a vital organ is permissible only after a declaration of death.[4] Forced organ harvesting may breach the dead donor rule as it stands. A reimagined, broader dead donor rule could consider a larger timeframe in the forced organ harvesting context. In doing so, the broad dead donor rule could cover intent, premeditation, aiding and abetting, and due diligence failures. A broad definition of forced organ harvesting is ‘‘the removal of one or more organs from a person by means of coercion, abduction, deception, fraud, or abuse of power. . .’’[5] A more targeted definition is “[t]he killing of a person so that their organs may be removed without their free, voluntary and informed consent and transplanted into another person.”[6] In the global organ harvesting context, forced organ harvesting violates the World Health Organization (WHO) Guiding Principle 3, which says “live organ donors should be acting willingly, free of any undue influence or coercion.”[7] Furthermore, WHO states live donors should be “genetically, legally, or emotionally” attached to the recipient. Guiding Principle 1 applies to deceased donors, covers consent, and permits donation absent any known objections by the deceased.[8] Principle 7 says, “Physicians and other health professionals should not engage in transplantation procedures, and health insurers and other payers should not cover such procedures if the cells, tissues or organs concerned have been obtained through exploitation or coercion of, or payment to, the donor or the next of kin of a deceased donor.”[9] There are underground markets in which organ hunters prey on the local poor in countries with low wages and widespread poverty[10] and human trafficking that targets migrants for the purpose of organ harvesting.[11] This paper explores forced harvesting under the backdrop of the dead donor rule, arguing that a human rights violation so egregious requires holding even distant participants in the chain of events accountable. By interfering with resources necessary to carry out bad acts, legislation and corporate and institutional policies can act as powerful deterrents. A broader dead donor rule would highlight the premeditation and intent evidenced well before the act of organ retrieval. I. Background and Evidence In China, there is evidence that people incarcerated for religious beliefs and practices (Falun Gong) and ethnic minorities (Uyghurs) have been subjects of forced organ harvesting. A tribunal (the China Tribunal) found beyond a reasonable doubt that China engaged in forced organ harvesting.[12] Additionally, eight UN Special Rapporteurs found a system of subjecting political prisoners and prisoners of conscience to blood tests and radiological examinations to determine the fitness of their organs.[13] As early as 2006, investigators found evidence of forced organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners. [14] Over a million Uyghurs are in custody there, and there is ample evidence of biometric data collection.[15] An Uyghur tribunal found evidence of genocide.[16] “China is the only country in the world to have an industrial-scale organ trafficking practice that harvests organs from executed prisoners of conscience.”[17] Witnesses testified to the removal of organs from live people without ample anesthesia,[18] summonses to the execution grounds for organ removal,[19] methods of causing death for the purpose of organ procurement,[20] removing eyes from prisoners who were alive,[21] and forcing live prisoners into operating rooms.[22] The current extent of executions to harvest organs from prisoners of conscience in China is unknown. The Chinese press has suggested surgeons in China will perform 50,000 organ transplants this year.[23] Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting (DAFOR) concluded, “[f]orced organ harvesting from living people has occurred and continues to occur unabated in China.”[24] China continues to advertise in multiple languages to attract transplant tourists.[25] Wait times for organs seem to remain in the weeks.[26] In the United States, it is common to wait three to five years.[27] II. The Nascent System of Voluntary Organ Donation in China In China, throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, the supply of organs for transplant was low, and there was not a national system to register as a donor. A 1984 act permitted death row prisoners to donate organs.[28] In 2005, a Vice Minister acknowledged that 95 percent of all organ transplants used organs from death row prisoners.[29] In 2007 the planning of a voluntary system to harvest organs after cardiac death emerged. According to a Chinese publication, China adopted brain death criteria in 2013.[30] There had been public opposition due partly to cultural unfamiliarity with it.[31] Cultural values about death made it more difficult to adopt a universal brain death definition. Both Buddhist and Confucian beliefs contradicted brain death.[32] Circulatory death was traditionally culturally accepted.[33] The Ministry of Health announced that by 2015 organ harvesting would be purely voluntary and that prisoners would not be the source of organs.[34] There are cultural barriers to voluntary donation partly due to a Confucian belief that bodies return to ancestors intact and other cultural and religious beliefs about respect for the dead.[35] An emphasis on family and community over the individual posed another barrier to the Western approach to organ donation. Public awareness and insufficient healthcare professional knowledge about the process of organ donation are also barriers to voluntary donation.[36] Although the Chinese government claims its current system is voluntary and no longer exploits prisoners,[37] vast evidence contradicts the credibility of the voluntary transplant program in China.[38] III. Dead Donor Rule: A Source of Bioethical Debate It seems tedious to apply this ethical foundation to something as glaring as forced organ harvesting. But the dead donor rule is a widely held recognition that it is not right to kill one person to save another.[39] It acts as a prohibition on killing for the sake of organ retrieval and imposes a technical requirement which influences laws on how death is declared. The dead donor rule prevents organ harvesting that causes death by prohibiting harvesting any organ which the donor agreed to donate only after death prior to an official declaration of death. There is an ongoing ethical debate about the dead donor rule. Many in bioethics and transplant medicine would justify removing organs in specific situations prior to a declaration of death, abandoning the rule.[40] Some use utilitarian arguments to justify causing the death of someone who is unconscious and on life support irreversibly. Journal articles suggest that the discussion has moved to one of timing and organ retrieval.[41] Robert Truog and Franklin Miller are critics of the dead donor rule, arguing that, in practice, it is not strictly obeyed: removing organs while a brain-dead donor is still on mechanical ventilation and has a beating heart and removing organs right after life support is removed and cardio-pulmonary death is declared both might not truly meet the requirement of the dead donor rule, making following the rule “a dubious norm.”[42] Miller and Truog question the concept of brain death, citing evidence of whole body integrated functions that continue indefinitely. They challenge cardio-pulmonary death, asserting that the definition includes as dead, those who could be resuscitated. Their hearts could resume beating with medical intervention. Stopping life support causes death only in those whose lives are sustained by it. Some stipulate that the organ retrieval must not itself cause the death. Some would rejigger the cause of death: Daniel Callahan suggests that the underlying condition causes the death despite removal of life support.[43] But logically, a person could continue life support and be alive, so clearly, removing life support does cause death. Something else would have caused brain death or the circumstance that landed the person on mechanical ventilation. To be more accurate, one could say X caused the irreversible coma and removing life support caused the death itself. Miller and Truog take the position that because withdrawal of life support does cause death, the dead donor rule should be defunct as insincere. To them, retrieving vital organs from a technically alive donor should be permissible under limited conditions. They look to the autonomous choices of the donor or the surrogate (an autonomy-based argument). They appreciate the demand for organs and the ability to save lives, drawing attention to those in need of organs. Live donor organ retrieval arguably presents a slippery slope, especially if a potential donor is close to death, but not so close to label it imminent. They say physicians would not be obligated to follow the orders of a healthy person wishing to have vital organs removed, perhaps to save a close friend or relative. Similarly, Radcliffe-Richards, et al. argue that there is no reason to worry about the slippery slope of people choosing death so they can sell their vital organs, whether for money for their decedents or their creditors.[44] The movement toward permissibility and increased acceptance of medical aid in dying also influence the organ donation arena. The slippery slope toward the end of life has potential to become a realistic concern. Older adults or other people close to death may want to donate a vital organ, like their heart, to a young relative in need. That could greatly influence the timing of a decision to end one’s life. IV. Relating the Dead Donor Rule to Forced Organ Harvesting There is well documented evidence that in China organs have been removed before a declaration of death.[45] But one thing the dead donor rule does not explicitly cover is intent and the period prior to the events leading to death. It tends to apply to a near-death situation and is primarily studied in its relationship to organ donation. It is about death more than it is about life. Robertson and Lavee investigated data on transplantation of vital organs in China and they document cases where the declaration of death was a pretense, insincere, and incorrect. Their aim was to investigate whether the prisoners were in fact dead prior to organ harvesting.[46] (The China Tribunal found that organs have been removed from live prisoners and that organ harvesting has been the cause of death.) They are further concerned with the possible role of doctors as executioners, or at least as complicit in the execution as the organ harvesting so closely follows it. V. A Broader Dead Donor Rule A presumed ethical precursor to the dead donor rule may also be an important ethical extension of the rule: the dead donor rule must also prohibit killing a person who is not otherwise near death for the purpose of post-death organ harvesting. In China, extra-judicial killings of prisoners of conscience are premeditated ― there is ample evidence of blood tests and radiology to ensure organ compatibility and health.[47] To have effective ethical force, the dead donor rule should have an obvious application in preventing intentional killing for an organ retrieval, not just killing by way of organ retrieval. When we picture the dead donor rule, bioethicists tend to envision a person on life support who will either be taken off it and stop breathing or who will be declared brain dead. But the dead donor rule should apply to healthy people subject to persecution at the point when the perpetrator lays the ground for the later killing. At that point, many organizations and people may be complicit or unknowingly contributing to forced organ harvesting. In this iteration of the dead donor rule, complicity in its violations would be widespread. The dead donor rule could address the initial action of ordering a blood or radiology test or collecting any biometric data. Trained physicians and healthcare technicians perform such tests. Under my proposed stretch of the dead donor rule, they too would be complicit in the very early steps that eventually lead to killing a person for their organs. I argue these steps are part of forced organ harvesting and violate the dead donor rule. The donor is very much alive in the months and years preceding the killing. A conspiracy of indifference toward life, religious persecution, ethnic discrimination, a desire to expand organ transplant tourism, and intent to kill can violate this broader dead donor rule. The dead donor rule does not usually apply to the timing of the thought of organ removal, nor the beginning of the chain of events that leads to it. It is usually saved for the very detailed determination of what may count as death so that physicians may remove vital and other organs, with the consent of the donor.[48] But I argue that declaring death at the time of retrieval may not be enough. Contributing to the death, even by actions months or years in advance, matter too. Perhaps being on the deathbed awaiting a certain death must be distinguished from going about one’s business only to wind up a victim of forced organ harvesting. Both may well be declared dead before organ retrieval, but the likeness stops there. The person targeted for future organ retrieval to satisfy a growing transplant tourism business or local demand is unlike the altruistic person on his deathbed. While it may seem like the dead donor rule is merely a bioethics rule, it does inform the law. And it has ethical heft. It may be worth expanding it to the arena of human trafficking for the sake of organ removal and forced organ harvesting.[49] The dead donor rule is really meant to ensure that death was properly declared to protect life, something that must be protected from an earlier point. VI. Complicity: Meaning and Application Human rights due diligence refers to actions that people or institutions must take to ensure they are not contributing to a human rights violation. To advise on how to mitigate risk of involvement or contribution to human rights violations, Global Rights Compliance published an advisory that describes human rights due diligence as “[t]he proactive conduct of a medical institution and transplant-associated entity to identify and manage human rights risks and adverse human rights impacts along their entire value and supply chain.”[50] Many people and organizations enable forced organ harvesting. They may be unwittingly complicit or knowingly aiding and abetting criminal activity. For example, some suppliers of medical equipment and immunosuppressants may inadvertently contribute to human rights abuses in transplantation in China, or in other countries where organs were harvested without consent, under duress, or during human trafficking. According to Global Rights Compliance, “China in the first half of 2021 alone imported ‘a total value of about 24 billion U.S. dollars’ worth of medical technology equipment’, with the United States and Germany among the top import sources.”[51] The companies supplying the equipment may be able to slow or stop the harm by failing to supply necessary equipment and drugs. Internal due diligence policies would help companies analyze their suppliers and purchasers. Corporations, educational institutions, and other entities in the transplantation supply chain, medical education, insurance, or publishing must engage in human rights due diligence. The Global Rights Compliance advisory suggests that journals should not include any ill-gotten research. Laws should regulate corporations and target the supply chain also. All actors in the chain of supply, etc. are leading to the death of the nonconsenting victim. They are doing so while the victim is alive. The Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act of 2023, pending in the United States, would hold any person or entity that “funds, sponsors, or otherwise facilitates forced organ harvesting or trafficking in persons for purposes of the removal of organs” responsible. The pending legislation states that: It shall be the policy of the United States—(1) to combat international trafficking in persons for purposes of the removal of organs;(2) to promote the establishment of voluntary organ donation systems with effective enforcement mechanisms in bilateral diplomatic meetings and in international health forums;(3) to promote the dignity and security of human life in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted on December 10, 1948; and(4) to hold accountable persons implicated, including members of the Chinese Communist Party, in forced organ harvesting and trafficking in persons for purposes of the removal of organs.[52] The Act calls on the President to provide Congress a list of such people or entities and to sanction them by property blocking, and, in the case of non-US citizens, passport and visa denial or revocation. The Act includes a reporting requirement under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 that includes an assessment of entities engaged in or supporting forced organ harvesting.[53] The law may have a meaningful impact on forced organ harvesting. Other countries have taken or are in the process of legal approaches as well.[54] Countries should consider legislation to prevent transplant tourism, criminalize complicity, and require human rights due diligence. An expanded dead donor rule supports legal and policy remedies to prevent enabling people to carry out forced organ harvesting. VII. Do Bioethicists Mention Human Rights Abuses and Forced Organ Harvesting Enough? As a field, bioethics literature often focuses on the need for more organs, the pain and suffering of those on organ transplant waitlists, and fairness in allocating organs or deciding who belongs on which waitlist and why. However, some bioethicists have drawn attention to forced organ harvesting in China. Notably, several articles noted the ethical breaches and called on academic journals to turn away articles on transplantation from China as they are based on the unethical practice of executing prisoners of conscience for their organs.[55] The call for such a boycott was originally published in a Lancet article in 2011.[56] There is some acknowledgement that China cares about how other countries perceive it,[57] which could lead to either improvements in human rights or cover-ups of violations. Ill-gotten research has long been in the bioethics purview with significant commentary on abuses in Tuskegee and the Holocaust.[58] Human research subjects are protected by the Declaration of Helsinki, which requires acting in the best interests of research subjects and informed consent among other protections.[59] The Declaration of Helsinki is directed at physicians and requires subjects enroll in medical research voluntarily. The Declaration does not explicitly cover other healthcare professionals, but its requirements are well accepted broadly in health care. CONCLUSION The dead donor rule in its current form really does not cover the life of a non-injured healthy person at an earlier point. If it could be reimagined, we could highlight the link between persecution for being a member of a group like Falun Gong practitioners or Uyghurs as the start of the process that leads to a nonconsensual organ retrieval whether after a proper declaration of death or not. It is obviously not ethically enough to ensure an execution is complete before the organs are harvested. It is abuse of the dead donor rule to have such a circumstance meet its ethical requirement. And obviously killing people for their beliefs or ethnicity (and extra-judicial killings generally) is not an ethically acceptable action for many reasons. The deaths are intentionally orchestrated, but people and companies who may have no knowledge of their role or the role of physicians they train or equipment they sell are enablers. An expanded dead donor rule helps highlight a longer timeframe and expanded scope of complicity. The organ perfusion equipment or pharmaceuticals manufactured in the United States today must not end up enabling forced organ harvesting. With an expanded ethical rule, the “donor is not dead” may become “the donor would not be dead if not for. . .” the host of illegal acts, arrests without cause, forced detention in labor camps, extra-judicial killings, lacking human rights due diligence, and inattention to this important topic. The expanded dead donor rule may also appeal to the bioethics community and justify more attention to laws and policies like the Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act of 2023. - [1] The word “donor” in this paper describes any person from whom organs are retrieved regardless of compensation, force, or exploitation in keeping with the bioethics literature and the phrase “dead donor rule.” [2] Robertson, M.P., Lavee J. (2022). Execution by organ procurement: Breaching the dead donor rule in China. Am J Transplant, Vol.22,1804– 1812. doi:10.1111/ajt.16969. [3] Robertson, J. A. (1999). Delimiting the donor: the dead donor rule. Hastings Center Report, 29(6), 6-14. [4] Retrieval of non-vital organs which the donor consents to donate post-death (whether opt-in, opt-out, presumed, or explicit according to local law) also trigger the dead donor rule. [5] The Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act of 2023, H.R. 1154, 118th Congress (2023), https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/1154. [6] Do No Harm: Mitigating Human Rights Risks when Interacting with International Medical Institutions & Professionals in Transplantation Medicine, Global Rights Compliance, Legal Advisory Report, April 2022, https://globalrightscompliance.com/project/do-no-harm-policy-guidance-and-legal-advisory-report/. [7] WHO Guiding Principles on Human Cell, Tissue and Organ Transplantation, as endorsed by the sixty-third World Health Assembly in May 2010, in Resolution WHA63.22 https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/341814/WHO-HTP-EHT-CPR-2010.01-eng.pdf?sequence=1. [8] WHO Guiding Principles on Human Cell, Tissue and Organ Transplantation (2010). [9] WHO Guiding Principles on Human Cell, Tissue and Organ Transplantation (2010). [10] Promchertchoo, Pichayada (Oct. 19, 2019). Kidney for sale: Inside Philippines’ illegal organ trade. https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/kidney-for-sale-philippines-illegal-organ-trade-857551; Widodo, W. and Wiwik Utami (2021), The Causes of Indonesian People Selling Covered Kidneys from a Criminology and Economic Perspective: Analysis Based on Rational Choice Theory. European Journal of Political Science Studies, Vol 5, Issue 1. [11] Van Reisen, M., & Mawere, M. (Eds.). (2017). Human trafficking and trauma in the digital era: The ongoing tragedy of the trade in refugees from Eritrea. African Books Collective. [12] The Independent Tribunal into Forced Organ Harvesting from Prisoners of Conscience in China (China Tribunal) (2020). https://chinatribunal.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/ChinaTribunal_JUDGMENT_1stMarch_2020.pdf [13] UN Office of the High Commissioner, Press Release, China: UN human Rights experts alarmed by ‘organ harvesting’ allegations (UN OTHCHR, 14 June 2021), https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2021/06/china-un-human-rights-experts-alarmed-organ-harvesting-allegations. [14] David Matas and David Kilgour, Bloody Harvest. The killing of Falun Gong for their organs (Seraphim Editions 2009). [15] How China is crushing the Uyghurs, The Economist, video documentary, July 9, 2019, https://youtu.be/GRBcP5BrffI. [16] Uyghur Tribunal, Judgment (9 December 2021) (Uyghur Tribunal Judgment) para 1, https://uyghurtribunal.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Uyghur-Tribunal-Judgment-9th-Dec-21.pdf. [17] Ali Iqbal and Aliya Khan, Killing prisoners for transplants: Forced organ harvesting in China, The Conversation Published: July 28, 2022. https://theconversation.com/killing-prisoners-for-transplants-forced-organ-harvesting-in-china-161999 [18] Testimony demonstrated surgeries to remove vital organs from live people, killing them, sometimes without ample anesthesia to prevent wakefulness and pain. China Tribunal (2020), p. 416-417. https://chinatribunal.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/ChinaTribunal_JUDGMENT_1stMarch_2020.pdf; Robertson MP, Lavee J. (2022), Execution by organ procurement: Breaching the dead donor rule in China. Am J Transplant, Vol.22,1804– 1812. doi:10.1111/ajt.16969. [19] Doctors reported being summoned to execution grounds and told to harvest organs amid uncertainty that the prisoner was in fact dead. China Tribunal (2020), p. 52-53. [20]In testimony to the China Tribunal, Dr. Huige Li noted four methods of organ harvesting from live prisoners: incomplete execution by shooting, after lethal injection prior to death, execution by removal of the heart, and after a determination of brain death prior to an intubation (pretense of brain death). China Tribunal (2020), pp. 54-55. https://chinatribunal.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/ChinaTribunal_JUDGMENT_1stMarch_2020.pdf [21] A former military medical student described removing organs from a live prisoner in the late 1990s. He further described his inability to remove the eyes of a live man and his witnessing another doctor forcefully remove the man’s eyes. China Tribunal (2020), p. 330. [22] In 2006, a nurse testified that her ex-husband, a surgeon, removed the eyes of 2,000 Falun Gong practitioners in one hospital between 2001 and 2003. She described the Falun Gong labor-camp prisoners as being forced into operating rooms where they were given a shot to stop their hearts. Other doctors removed other organs. DAFOH Special Report, 2022. https://epochpage.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/12/DAFOH-Special-Report-2022.pdf [23] Robertson MP, Lavee J. (2022), Execution by organ procurement: Breaching the dead donor rule in China. Am J Transplant, Vol.22,1804– 1812. doi:10.1111/ajt.16969. [24] DAFOH Special Report, 2022. https://epochpage.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/12/DAFOH-Special-Report-2022.pdf; DAFOH’s physicians were nominated for a Nobel Prize for their work to stop forced organ harvesting. Šućur, A., & Gajović, S. (2016). Nobel Peace Prize nomination for Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting (DAFOH) - a recognition of upholding ethical practices in medicine. Croatian medical journal, 57(3), 219–222. https://doi.org/10.3325/cmj.2016.57.219 [25] Robertson and Lavee (2022). [26] Stop Organ Harvesting in China, website (organization of the Falun Dafa). https://www.stoporganharvesting.org/short-waiting-times/ [27] National Kidney Foundation, The Kidney Transplant Waitlist – What You Need to Know, https://www.kidney.org/atoz/content/transplant-waitlist [28] Wu, Y., Elliott, R., Li, L., Yang, T., Bai, Y., & Ma, W. (2018). Cadaveric organ donation in China: a crossroads for ethics and sociocultural factors. Medicine, 97(10). [29] Wu, Elliott, et al., (2018). [30] Su, Y. Y., Chen, W. B., Liu, G., Fan, L. L., Zhang, Y., Ye, H., ... & Jiang, M. D. (2018). An investigation and suggestions for the improvement of brain death determination in China. Chinese Medical Journal, 131(24), 2910-2914. [31] Huang, J., Millis, J. M., Mao, Y., Millis, M. A., Sang, X., & Zhong, S. (2012). A pilot programme of organ donation after cardiac death in China. The Lancet, 379(9818), 862-865. [32] Yang, Q., & Miller, G. (2015). East–west differences in perception of brain death: Review of history, current understandings, and directions for future research. Journal of bioethical inquiry, 12, 211-225. [33] Huang, J., Millis, J. M., Mao, Y., Millis, M. A., Sang, X., & Zhong, S. (2015). Voluntary organ donation system adapted to Chinese cultural values and social reality. Liver Transplantation, 21(4), 419-422. [34] Huang, Millis, et al. (2015). [35] Wu, X., & Fang, Q. (2013). Financial compensation for deceased organ donation in China. Journal of Medical Ethics, 39(6), 378-379. [36] An, N., Shi, Y., Jiang, Y., & Zhao, L. (2016). Organ donation in China: the major progress and the continuing problem. Journal of biomedical research, 30(2), 81. [37] Shi, B. Y., Liu, Z. J., & Yu, T. (2020). Development of the organ donation and transplantation system in China. Chinese medical journal, 133(07), 760-765. [38] Robertson, M. P., Hinde, R. L., & Lavee, J. (2019). 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(Authored by members of the International Forum for Transplant Ethics.) [45] Robertson and Lavee, (2022). [46] Robertson and Lavee, (2022). [47] China Tribunal (2020). [48] Consent varies by local law and may be explicit or presumed and use an opt-in or opt-out system and may or may not require the signoff by a close family member. [49] Bain, Christina, Mari, Joseph. June 26, 2018, Organ Trafficking: The Unseen Form of Human Trafficking, ACAMS Today, https://www.acamstoday.org/organ-trafficking-the-unseen-form-of-human-trafficking/; Stammers, T. (2022), "2: Organ trafficking: a neglected aspect of modern slavery", Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking, Bristol, UK: Policy Press. https://bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/view/book/978144736. [50] Do No Harm: Mitigating Human Rights Risks when Interacting with International Medical Institutions & Professionals in Transplantation Medicine, Global Rights Compliance, Legal Advisory Report, April 2022, https://globalrightscompliance.com/project/do-no-harm-policy-guidance-and-legal-advisory-report/. [51] Global Rights Compliance, p. 22. [52] The Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act of 2023, H.R. 1154, 118th Congress (2023). https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/1154. [53] The Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act of 2023, H.R. 1154, 118th Congress (2023), https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/1154. [54] Global Rights Compliance notes that Belgium, France (passed law on human rights due diligence in the value supply chain), United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand have legal approaches, resolutions, and pending laws. p. 45. [55] For example, Caplan, A.L. 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[59] World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki: Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects, adopted by the 18th WMA General Assembly, Helsinki, Finland, June 1964, and amended multiple times, most recently by the 64th WMA General Assembly, Fortaleza, Brazil, October 2013. https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects/