Marginalized community refers to a small group of people who are vulnerable, oppressed or underserved which include low-income individuals, homeless, native people and refugees. Oral healthcare among this group of people requires more attention. This predicament led a group of students and lecturers from the Faculty of Dentistry, University Sains Islam Malaysia to develop a dental community service programme. This study aimed to determine the background of patients involved in the programme, to identify the common medical problems and treatment needs for the patients in the marginalized community. Periodic visits were arranged for the selected centre for the past three years. During the visits, dental screening and treatment were documented in the dental treatment card. The dental screenings were carried out for 431 patients in the Chow Kit area and 217 patients in the Rohingya Refugees centre. More than a quarter of the total number of patients received basic dental treatment such as restorations and scaling. The study found that the distribution of patients attending both programmes differs in terms of the age range. The most common medical problems among patients are hypertension and diabetes mellitus and in comparison, communicable diseases were more common to be found among the homeless. The need for restoration and extraction were high in both programmes.

As with other university programs, dental school has been affected during the Covid-19 pandemic due to physical distancing and clinical restriction. Covid-19 pandemic changes the original method of study with the swift shift to online learning, which may affect students’ performance. The objective of this study was to assess the effect of online learning methods on the final examination performance for dental undergraduate students in their clinical years in a public university in Malaysia. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and post-hoc Tukey tests were conducted to compare the effect of learning methods on the mean examination score, by comparing clinical students from the year of 2018 and 2019 face-to-face (f2f) learning method as compared to fully online learning in 2020. The analysis shows that there is a statistically significant difference on final exam performance at p < 0.05 for Year 3 [F (2, 102) = 11.68] and Year 5 [F(2, 95) = 22.32]. Post-hoc Tukey HSD test indicates that the mean examination result for 2019 is significantly different from 2020 and 2018 even though the same learning method was employed for the latter. There was also no statistically significant difference for when the 2020 cohort is compared to the 2018 cohort for both Year 3 and Year 5. There was no statistically significant difference in mean examination score across all cohorts for Year 4 students. Although limited in scope, the conclusion of this study was that, f2f learning method has no significant difference with online learning in terms of final examination performance.

Reduced occlusal vertical dimension due to severe tooth surface loss poses significant functional and aesthetic impacts to the patient. Extensive dental procedures to restore the occlusion and aesthetics is usually a challenge to the treating dentist. Overlay removable partial denture can be used as the simpler treatment modalities to treat moderate to severe tooth surface loss. This case study reported the fabrication of a lower partial cobalt-chromium overlay denture to restore the occlusal vertical dimension on a 78 year-old lady with Kennedy Class I partially edentulous with severe lower anterior tooth surface loss. Thin layer of acrylic tooth veneers was added to the labial surface of the overlay denture to improve the aesthetics. This solution was functionally acceptable and met the need and demand of the patient.

Reduced occlusal vertical dimension due to severe tooth surface loss poses significant functional and aesthetic impacts to the patient. Extensive dental procedures to restore the occlusion and aesthetics is usually a challenge to the treating dentist. Overlay removable partial denture can be used as the simpler treatment modalities to treat moderate to severe tooth surface loss. This case study reported the fabrication of a lower partial cobalt-chromium overlay denture to restore the occlusal vertical dimension on a 78 year-old lady with Kennedy Class I partially edentulous with severe lower anterior tooth surface loss. Thin layer of acrylic tooth veneers was added to the labial surface of the overlay denture to improve the aesthetics. This solution was functionally acceptable and met the need and demand of the patient.

This case report describes the technique of composite build-up for tooth surface loss using direct composite resin restoration. This technique has the advantages of being conservative while improving aesthetics and restoring function for the patient.