Introduction: Salivary melatonin is a critical antioxidant that contributes to oral health by mitigating oxidative stress. Psychological stress linked to thumb sucking may disrupt oral homeostasis, leading to conditions such as dental caries and fungal infections. Aim: This study explores the relationships between thumb sucking, salivary melatonin levels, dental caries, and the presence of Candida albicans (CA) in children. Materials and methods: A case-control study was conducted with 60 children aged 4-5 years at the University of Baghdad’s College of Dentistry. Participants were divided into thumb-sucking (n=30) and non-thumb-sucking (n=30) groups. Salivary melatonin levels were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA), dental caries were assessed via the dmfs index, and CA counts were quantified on Sabouraud dextrose agar (SDA). Statistical analyses were performed, including t-tests, ANOVA, and correlation assessments. Results: Thumb-sucking children exhibited significantly lower salivary melatonin levels (28.620±2.278 pg/mL) compared to controls (34.525±2.142 pg/mL; p=0.044). The thumb-sucking group also had higher dmfs scores (15.033±1.449 vs. 8.667±0.899; p=0.000) and greater CA counts (18.900±1.048 vs. 13.583±0.549; p=0.000). Negative correlations were observed between salivary melatonin levels and the severity of dental caries, while positive correlations linked CA with dental caries. Conclusions: Thumb sucking adversely affects pediatric oral health by reducing salivary melatonin, increasing dental caries risk, and promoting fungal overgrowth. Early intervention to curb thumb-sucking behaviors may mitigate these risks and improve oral health outcomes.
Praise be to God, Lord of the Worlds, and prayers and peace be upon the Master of Messengers, Muhammad and his family
The good and pure and after his companions
God Almighty said: ( ) Do they not contemplate the Qur’an? If it had been from other than God, they would have found in it much discrepancy. God Almighty has made the well-being of people and their lives linked to faith in it. So what is the need of people today to return to the Book of their Lord so that they may return to the right path that God intended for His servants so that they may attain sustenance? Security and the good life. How could it not be, when many of the nations of the world no longer see security or stability because their leaders and politic
... Show MoreThe ancient Iraqis in the Mesopotamian civilization practiced various sports activities and physical exercises to develop their physical fitness until these practices became a part of their lives and accompanied their religious, social, and military celebrations. Music had a presence in many sports scenes, and the presence of musicians and musical instruments with the armies indicated its great role. In the military scene, the research aims to shed light on the archaeological evidence and evidence of the integration of music with the sports and military scene in Mesopotamian civilization and to explore the impact of music in the sports and military scene of Mesopotamian civilization. The historical approach was adopted in collecting and des
... Show MoreInvestment in high education is considered to be most important factors of production which the return an individual and social than economic returns found by searching the growing problem of unemployment, especially among youth graduates, where the unemployment rate in 2010 (50%) of these high rates have led to increased migration of scientific minds graduate recently, "to search for job opportunities outside Iraq for not hiring functions and this is in vain" clear "in the human and financial resources lead to structural imbalances in the Iraqi economy. When calculating the correlation coefficient between the graduates and the unemployment rate where it reached (0.21) emerged from the results of
... Show MoreThe present search addressed the " leadership skills and their impact on strategic planning " Where has the objective of leadership skills and strategic planning of increasing importance at the present time , for being fairly modern topics ,which have a tremendous impact on the success of organizations.. &n
... Show MoreSince the nineties of the last century, Iraqi youth have been exposed to Mexican soap operas dubbed into classical Arabic, and the stories and ideas presented by these series were almost new to all the minds of the youth at that time, a culture completely different from the culture we have of social relations, and since the number of episodes was more than Of the 100 episodes, exposure to these series has left young people confused by the addiction to all their ideas and stories. They differ from the foreign films (mostly American) that we used to watch, and they only take two hours (at most). These films contain diverse stories and may be forgotten. Memory includes events and characters in their entirety at times, and you may remember th
... Show MoreArt education is one among the fundamental subjects for elementary school students, because it contributes to assembling learners’ personalities and developing their technical skills. For this reason, this research comes, which aims to understand the effect of the task groups’ strategy in developing the performance of elementary school students in art education. to realize the goal of the research, the researcher put the subsequent hypotheses:
-There is not any statistically significant difference at the amount (5%) between the typical many students between the experimental group that studied consistent with the strategy of task groups and therefore the control group that studied in keeping with the same old method that they obt
The issue of peaceful coexistence between societies is the topic of the hour, as it is one of the important issues in this era, especially in days when conflicts and conflicts abound, and even wars in the name of religion, gender, race, language, and the like. The world, so that single-mindedness and adherence to one opinion and intolerance to it became the method of dialogue in our world today, as writing in the field of peaceful coexistence, peace-building, tolerance, pluralism, and acceptance of the other is one of the new fields of knowledge in Iraq in general and in Nineveh Governorate in particular, as peaceful coexistence is one of the basic needs And necessary for the presence of individuals in societies, and it requires the achi
... Show MoreThe research aims to identify the tax policy strategy adopted in Iraq after the change of the tax system in 2003 and beyond, and then make a comparison of the two strategies on corporate data whether they are charged with progressive tax rates and after the change of the system as the tax rates became fixed, and then indicate the changes In the tax proceeds, and knowing the imensions of the approved tax policy, is it a tax reform strategy or a strategy to attract investments.The research started from the problem of exposure of the Iraqi tax system to several changes, as this led to a reflection on the technical organization of taxes, in terms of the tax rate.The descriptive analytical approach was chosen to study the actual reality of th
... Show MoreCandida Berkh. (1923) occurs naturally in the body. But it becomes opportunistic fungi, meaning that it infects humans when there is any weakening of the immune system, such as exposure to chemotherapy, diabetes, or organ transplantation. Most species of Candida grow at a temperature between 20-40 °C and have a pH of 3-8. Human pathogens of Candida species include C. albicans, C. glabrata, C. lusitaniae, C. parapsilosis, C. tropicalis and C. utili. C. albicans has many virulence factors that facilitate injury process. Virulence factors are considered as a measure of pathogenicity, and it is in the form of fungal toxins, enzymes, or cell structures that facilitate infection, as well as pathogen resistance in different conditions. This study
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