1s November 2013: Natural Vs Complete denture occlusion

I decided to compare more specific dental restorations and the natural teeth. The first being dentures. 

One online powerpoint website was extremely helpful and introduced many new ideas and sub headings that were relevant to my EPQ. The information directly compared dentures (in particular their occlusal surface) and the natural occlusal surface of teeth. 

It included:

-non vertical forces 

-bilateral balance 

-Retention, Stability and support etc etc. 

my notes taken from the website (left)

A lot of theory on physics cropped up which was difficult to understand as the theories and equations were foreign to me. So I was thinking of asking a physics teacher in college to explain it in a simpler form. 

I further researched into the information from this website, so my research could be more detailed. Surprisingly I found some useful articles from the BDJ (British Dental Journal) which I struggled with earlier on, however once again the language used in these papers were difficult to understand. I also went on a mexican dental care website which gave similar information but this website also gave an equation known as Stefan's law. This law was pretty comprehensive and shows the force necessary to pull the plates apart (I think the plates are referring to the gum and the surface of the denture).

Most of these sources explained the physical mechanisms of complete denture retention (retention is the resistance of a denture to resist vertical movement away from the dentures). The factors involved in retention are covered in the sources which include surface tension, adhesion, cohesion, atmospheric pressure etc. These are factors I would like to further explore as it would give depth to my essay.

29th October 2013: Writing a literature Review
In the lesson, we were told we had to do a literature review at the end of our dissertation. From my understanding a literature review is a single page comparing and contrasting research from different sources relevant to one part of your essay. Its a simple evaluation of these sources whilst awarding credibility to the useful sources.
A literature Review is another brand new skill that I have learnt to do, nearer the end of my project I will practise this skill to produce my own literature review.

In the class we watched a video about what a literature review was and what was not. From this we took notes (below).

26th October 2013: Research into Restorative dentistry

Following my plan to change my EPQ title, I started to research firstly about dental restorations and the different types that are available currently in dentistry. For this I decided to research on wikipedia. 

I then attempted to research 'how good dental restorations are compared to teeth' (typed this in google) and found a couple of websites. Although the information was reliable and informative, I had a hard time relating it back to my title. Most of the information that I found on these websites discussed the advantages and disadvantages of restorative techniques including aspects such as durability, resistance to wear, resistance to fracture etc. This information is partly helpful but it doesn't compare the natural teeth with dental restorations. Nonetheless I decided to use some of the information and maybe do some further research about the same aspects of the natural teeth, e.g. their resistance to fracture/wear etc, and indirectly compare the two.  

The websites that I used to collect this information are the screen captures below.

http://www.quackwatch.com/03HealthPromotion/dentalmaterials.html

http://www.ada.org/sections/publicResources/pdfs/dental_fillings_facts_full.pdf

Following this, I went on BDJ (British Dental Journal) and typed in dental restorations in the search bar of the publications. Reading through the titles, I picked out a couple of titles which seemed relevant to my EPQ (below). I made notes on the relevant information and using yellow sticky pads briefly evaluated the source on its usefulness.

 This publication is Research

This publication is a Review 

(both publications are evaluated using yellow sticky pads (right))

Overall the Sources that I researched was fairly useful, however they lacked depth and wasn't directly related to my title (validity issues). However it has given me a starting point to the possible sub sections to research and for further research I will look into specific restorations compared to the natural teeth e.g. comparing dentures to the natural teeth.

22nd October 2013

Research Fail, Changing of Title, Deadline Extension

I have tried to find further research into the importance of teeth, however most of the information is monotonous and repetitive and unfortunately I can't seem to extend my project further. Following my research on the 17th October as well as a chat with my two EPQ teachers I have decided to extend my EPQ title to cover the level of similarity between dental restorations and the natural tooth. I feel like this is an appropriate change because it means I can explore another aspect of dentistry which can relate back to my original title. 

My EPQ teachers were worried that my original title 'How important are our natural teeth and could we develop to live without them' was going to be a simple yes/no answer. I was also skeptical of my title because my research had come to a halt so I decided this was the ideal choice. Extending my title also means that I will be able to back up my yes/no decision at the end with the research about dental restorations and if they can perfectly replace our natural teeth. 

Following my decision to change my EPQ title, I have edited my project verification form. (below)

This also means that I will have to carry out more research, including primary research, therefore I have decided to push my deadline further to April, so that I will have more time to adjust to the changes I have made, 

My Target this week is to start researching about the similarity between dental restorations and the natural teeth, so that I can begin to generate the different sub headings for my essay. 

Internet Research and The Beginning of the Bibliography

I decided to have another stab at researching some information on google and this time I was successful!
In google I entered: what would life be without teeth?

I found two websites that listed the importance of teeth and was surprised more than what I expected e.g. teeth as an importance of maintaining healthy bones.

The First Website I went on, it gave me ideas on the importance of teeth such as biting and chewing, distributing forces to core of tooth 

The second website I accessed was the one above. It also have me ideas on the importance of teeth, but this time about maintaining a healthy bone level (alveolar tissue) and speaking. 

I made some notes of the research that I did in my brand new EPQ Research folder, and decided to apply a key that would separate; different sites I explored, ideas that I thought of whilst  doing the research itself and parts of information that I would like to research further. This would be useful for when I start writing the dissertation because I can flick through the information to the ones I need.

Above; notes that I made on the two websites i accessed 

Here I made a general list of what I found out from the research about the importance of teeth, and hopefully with further research I can add to this. I thought this would be useful so that when I go onto write my dissertation there will be a summary of all the parts that I could include, and I don't have to look through heaps of research.








 Furthermore on the two website I found a substantial amount of information on why restorative dentistry is not as good as the natural tooth, and I thought I would include this in my EPQ project as it seems to be an important subject in the dental world. Also it relates to my EPQ quite well as I am debating about the importance of teeth so incorporating the idea of unnatural teeth seems appropriate.

Also during research, I found a lot of links to forums e.g. yahoo answers, which I found to be useless as most of them were concerned about their own dental problems and dentures as opposed factual information. Although this information could be potential research I was hesitant to use it because most the sources lack expertise and the content may not be valid.

Finally I also started my bibliography which was slightly different to what we were taught in class because at home I use a macbook (APA system) which has different settings. I went online and looked at how I can citate and reference on this system and found it to be easily done.

My bibliography so far

Initially I was confused about how I was going to start a bibliography without actually writing the dissertation, and to overcome this I decided to copy and paste an appropriate phrase from the two sites and reference this for the moment being. When I start writing up my dissertation it means I can change/delete the phrase according to the essay and this will ensure that the sources that I have read are not forgotten in my bibliography. Also it means that my bibliography is starting to build up now as opposed to doing it all at once at the end.

LRC

Strangely in the lesson this morning we went through the LRC (basically the library) which was available for our research. In groups we were given the opportunity to go to the library and we were given a tour of the available resources.

One of the most useful resources I found were the online ones, which are a collection of journals magazines and articles that out college subscribes to. The 'Gale Virtual Reference Library' was pointed out by the librarian and when I accessed the page later on I found a an aggregation of books which looked potentially useful for my project. Also during my college break I went through the journals available on the LRC and was pleasantly surprised at the range available e.g. biology review, General one file, Scientific World, New Scientist and so many more. Unfortunately I had an unsuccessful attempt at accessing these online resources at home so I will ask the librarians about this tomorrow.

The librarian also does a very handy job of going through all the articles in the magazines and records them online so students can access the ones that they need. Finally there were also ebooks and hard copies of past EPQ projects, however i found that there was only one project related to dentistry which was about forensics. Nonetheless I do really want to read some EPQ projects to get a better idea of how much I have to research and eventually write up.

All in all, I found this lesson had answered my prayers to my difficulties that I had finding research related to my project. Therefore during this week I will have no excuses to put off my EPQ research any longer.

Finally i talked to my EPQ teachers about the situation of trying to get in contact with some dentists and they suggested that I go to the practice and asked if they are willing to do it, so that I will not be wasting any time.

Wednesday 9th October
I sent a message to my work experience manager wether I could get in contact with some of the dentists who I shadowed during work experience in the summer.

I also went on google to research the importance of teeth,
When I typed in the search bar 'the importance of teeth' the articles/websites which came up were about the importance of going to the dentists regularly or why we should take care of our teeth. Most of these articles were useless as they covered of taking care of our teeth rather than the importance of teeth itself. Therefore I did not bother reading these articles as I thought it would just be a waste of time.
At this point I felt I had reached a dead end with research.

Sunday Update
This week (7th Oct-14th Oct) has been slightly unsuccessful in terms of my EPQ. When i tried to find research I reached a dead end where I could not find any sources related to my project. Finding information about 'the importance of teeth' was too broad for google and I had no luck! Also my work experience practice manager failed to get back to me about possibly getting in contact with some dentists to get hold of primary research.

This means I did not reach my target from last week, to firstly get in contact with some dentists and secondly evaluate my past research. I found this week to be very busy because of my workload from my other A2 subjects as well as being sick during the weekend from the sudden temperature drop.

I have decided to set only one target this week as I have much to catch up on from last weeks target as well as two practical assessments in biology and chemistry.
My Target this week is find out where I can get research related to my project and hopefully get hold of some secondary sources of research. Also I would like to finish evaluating my part research  

Referencing/Bibliography

In the EPQ lesson this morning, we covered referencing using the Harvard System. Having never used this system before, I was pleasantly surprised at how easy and useful it was. Furthermore we also looked at how our bibliography would be automatically created when referencing during our essay write up. It also reminded me to start a bibliography on the books/reports I have read so far. The teachers said it was very useful to start it now, because most people have trouble finishing it at the end of the project which 'can take days' apparently.

I have attached some pictures of my notes that I took in lesson, about how to reference different types of information e.g. statistics from websites, quoting from books etc.

Also in the last part of the lesson after we completed a task practicing referencing different types of information e.g. articles from text books, articles from websites etc. we completed the Aim and Outcome part of our verification form. For the Aim we wrote a short paragraph expanding our title and for the outcome we stated what type of project we were going to complete. 

In the class, I also asked the teachers about evaluation because I had not started yet and was slightly confused about what and how to evaluate (even after last weeks evaluation lesson). The teachers told me to evaluate all my sources using Raven and also big decisions that I might make in my project e.g. if I change my title or if I change the direction of my project mid way, explaining why  chose to do these things. 

I met my target from last week, to start a log diary through a blog, and my target for this week is to start gaining primary research by getting in contact with dentists from my work experience and to evaluate the sources that I have researched so far. 

Sunday Update 1

This is the part of the blog, that I decided to create to write down all my thoughts about my EPQ progression, almost like a diary. I feel like it will be helpful, so that I can look back and remember what i was feeling during each step of my EPQ journey. Also I will try and do this every sunday hence 'Sunday Update'.

This past month has been such a blur from the ucas application, ukcat revision, training for my run and I have found myself falling behind on my EPQ project. I really do hope it isn't like this for the rest of the year.
I have found some of the EPQ classes very helpful like the one last monday where we were taught about the different types of sources and the evaluation process, it really gives me ideas I can start on.

I made this blog only a week ago and until them I didn't realise how long it takes to write and upload a single post. This past week I have been trying to catch up on my log diary, by updating everything that I have done so far on this blog. Very time consuming, especially as I am slightly technologically challenged and it certainly does not help that i have a class maths test tomorrow! But I am just so relieved that this is my final post of the week and have successfully met my target that I set on Monday.

I am hoping form next week I can start contacting dentists and getting some primary research done.

2nd October 
RE: Formulating the Title
After missing the deadline for verifying my title, I decided to do this as soon as I had the time. My initial title was going to be 'A Teeth-less Tale' however I was told that it had to be a question, so I made a brainstorm of the different ways I could write my title.
In my title I wanted to incorporate:
-wether or not Teeth are Important
-how would we biologically differ without teeth
-do we really need teeth

So I made a spider diagram of the possible question titles:

 My chosen question was:
What is the importance of teeth and how would we develop/differ without them?

 I then decided to further develop my chosen question and by rephrasing it in different ways
I wrote down in pencil the good and bad points of each question.

My final chosen question is:
How important are our teeth and could we develop to live without them?

I chose 'HOW' because it suggests that teeth may or may not be important.
I chose 'COULD' because it shows that my project is trying to suggest developments that could happen rather than what will happen. There is no evidence of humankind without teeth so I cannot be sure.

I also verified my question on google drive so that my EPQ teachers would see that I have done this.
I am hoping to get the verdict from my teachers on monday so I can finalise my title.

30th September 

RE: Types of Sources/Evaluating Sources and Hailey's Blog 

Unfortunately I did not meet my deadline to formulate my title, and when the teachers came round asking about it, I felt slightly guilty for forgetting about it. So I set another target to think of a title by the end of the week. 

I found this lesson to be VERY helpful!

Firstly we looked at a blog (Hailey's Blog) created by a previous EPQ student who had logged everything onto this. I found this very useful because I was able to visualise how I could log something electronically. Obviously I was inspired to write my own blog, because it has many advantages; my scruffy handwriting avoided, I wouldn't lose any bits of paper, pictures could be uploaded, chronological order and the list goes on. However the main reason I chose to do a blog is so that i could organise everything in one place. 

The only problem was that I had actually started my EPQ project/logging since June but despite this I recorded everything by dating it and uploading pictures of notes from the past. 

Secondly we paired up and made a spider diagram (below) of the types of research we could collect for our EPQ. Half of the diagram was from my partner, my half is the one on the left. We also wrote down the strengths and weaknesses for each type of source 

 

Finally we looked evaluating resources and the teachers made us do a task on Ed Milliband and his claim to freeze energy prices. On the computers we looked at various sources of information e.g newspaper articles, videos and surveys to evaluate the sources of inormation. For example the political party that the newspaper favours and how this affects the honesty of the source (bias). Our teacher also gave us a marking scheme (RAVEN) to assess the sources that we receive our information from. 

 

My target for next week is to start my EPQ blog and log everything that I have done so far. 

DUE: 7TH OCTOBER

23rd September
In this EPQ lesson we made timelines for ourselves, roughly indicating what we would like to complete and when we'd like to complete it by. Initially everyone made colourful timelines on A3, but with my scruffy nature I felt it looked too messy, so on my notebook I wrote down the tasks I would like to complete in each month leading up to my deadline.
I was fairly lenient about the dates trying not sticking to strict deadlines because I knew that being too uptight on time is unrealistic especially as I have to prioritise my other three subjects.
I have also set my personal deadline earlier than the actual one so that if I am running behind i don't miss the final deadline.

30th September - Title Deadline
Oct-Nov - Research
End November - Plan Write up
December - Main write up
January - Rough completion
End Jan/Feb - Start Presentation
Start of March - Personal Project deadline
April - Final Deadline

16th September
RE: Chat with EPQ teachers 
This was the very first time that I spoke to teachers intimately about my project, and i found it extremely helpful.
I gave them a brief pitch of my idea and what sort of information I was going to incorporate. I told them I wanted to do dentistry in university and one of the teachers, Sian, suggested a form of primary research which was to ask dentists how important they though teeth were. Personally, I felt stupid that I hadn't thought of this before, because then I could have got a lot of primary research during my work experience. Nonetheless she said that some of her friends from university were dentists so she could get some contacts for myself. Also Sian suggested that I spoke to dentists who were specialised, e.g. cosmetic surgeons, orthodontists, general dentists etc so that I could get a wider range of views from experts in the same field. (I added this to my to-do research list)
I also told my teachers that my initial was title was going to be 'A Teeth-less Tale' however I was told that the title had to be based around a question so that I can balance two arguments. So I gave myself the target to think of a question type title by the next monday.

Monday 9th September 
RE: Radiolab Podcast 'Guts' 

On this particular podcast, Jad and Robert talk to a man named John Rynar who had a tear (fistulum) in his intestine which forced him to be fed through a feeding tube for a large period of his life. For a long time he did not use his mouth to get food inside his body, but one day when he did he realised that he could not taste anything and later on noticed this was because of a loss of taste buds on his tongue ( his tongue was completely flat).

This got me thinking about my own EPQ project, because I had set up a theme where I could write about what people would eat if there was a life without teeth and the obvious answer would be that people would only drink food. So relating this back to the podcast maybe people would lose some taste buds because people would only slurp/drink their food, rather than biting/crunching like we do with out teeth. Also there would be restrictions of many foods that we could not eat so our taste buds would miss out on this.

Just like John lost his taste buds maybe people would lose certain parts of the human body if there were no teeth. Furthermore, how could out digestive system develop without teeth and would the evolution of humans also differ?

Monday 22nd July
RE: Hairy Tongue Patient at Work Experience

During my work experience in Kantipur Dental Hospital in Nepal, unexpectedly one patient came in with a case of hairy tongue. Visually it was very unpleasant and although it did little harm to the patient himself, I realised how serious oral diseases could be. Unfortunately I was only able to get a glimpse.

Although this encounter may seem irrelevant to my project, however it really opened my eyes to a wider branch of dentistry instead of just fillings and braces! It also got me thinking about wether oral diseases would exist if we did not have teeth and other forms of diseases we could develop without them.

During my three weeks of work experience, I regret not talking to dentists about my EPQ as it could have formed valuable primary research. I did not think of the idea to talk to dentists.

14th July (India Airport)
RE: Researching from previously downloaded books/publications 

During my five hour transit I made brief notes from the books 'art of preserving teeth' and 'importance of the preservation of teeth' which I previously saved on my laptop.
The notes I took are about why teeth are important in our lives, certain teeth defects e.g. tar tar, how teeth have become more of a problem these days etc. Also I have made some additional notes of my own, such as highlighting parts I would like to research more about and writing down my own thoughts related to the research.
(the notes I made here are not completed notes because I did not finish reading the two books)

DISCLAIMER:
The notes I have made are messy and in some parts may be unreadable

Importance of Teeth 

Pain related to Teeth 

How Teeth have become more of a problem?

Ancient reference to Teeth 

The Beginning

Initially, I chose to do an Extended Project Qualification because my friends were doing it also, so I thought it would be a good idea. However after a couple of talks I attended in College, by the teachers and staff, I realised how highly regarded this qualification was for admission tutors at university. It was a great opportunity for me to enhance independent studying skills. I would like to do dentistry at Higher education so I thought an EPQ in the dental field would mildly prepare me for what I might face at Dental School.

Although this is not the actual date of when I started my EPQ project, it is however the start of my Log diary, because after an EPQ lesson this morning I was inspired to write a blog. So before this point I had not logged very much, which is a shame because I had started to think and build ideas months before.

Here I have a listed a brief log of everything I had done before this point.

June
I found out about the EPQ and attended a talk in the Prospect theatre in our College. After the talk I had ideas related to dentistry floating around in my head.
-forensic in dentistry
-fluoridation
-dental Health around the world
-developments in dentistry
However I was not satisfied with most of these ideas because I felt they had a 'ceiling effect' in that there was only so much I could write about.

June
One a particular day, me and my friend, Prakriti Rai, were walking to the bus stop after lesson and chatting about each-others EPQ. She suggested that I could write about what our life would be like without teeth e.g. what our diet would comprise of etc. Her idea really struck me, because I could build a lot on it. I could write about our biological differences, the importance of teeth, how the lives of humans would change and most importantly I could argue wether or not teeth is a necessity in our lives.

Friday July 12th 2013

A week or so later, I went online and tried to find books about the importance of teeth, however i found this very difficult and most dental books were of higher education level and had to be purchased. Soon I found a website called 'archive.org' where I found a couple of books and publications about importance of teeth which I downloaded on my laptop to be read later.
My first ever research proved very hard to find so I knew that I had to get primary research to pin point the information that I sought to find.

Images:
1. archive.org
2. Dental books/publications that I saved