Basic Science for NDEB AFK Course, INBDE, Dental Board Exams

Define prokaryotes and eukaryotes, compare binary fission with mitosis and meiosis, and connect ribosome subunits and ergosterol as key antifungal targets—amphotericin B.

Describe bacterial structure as a prokaryote with DNA, ribosomes, cell wall, and membrane, and explain antibiotic targets on wall, ribosome, folic acid, and DNA gyrase.

Classify bacteria by shape, respiration, and gram stain—cocci, rods, spirals; oxygen needs (obligate, facultative); gram-positive vs. gram-negative walls; diplo, strepto, staph groupings; acid-fast stains for tuberculosis.

Explore bacterial virulence factors and toxins, including adhesion, capsules, and tissue-degrading enzymes, and distinguish exotoxins from endotoxins with dental plaque implications.

Examine the microbiology of dental caries, highlighting Streptococcus mutans as the initiator that attaches to enamel, forms polysaccharides, and produces acid; lactobacilli act as secondary colonizers in established lesions.

Explores periodontal microbiology from health to disease, highlighting a shift from gram-positive cocci to gram-negative anaerobic rods. The red complex bacteria—Porphyromonas gingivalis, Tannerella forsythia, Treponema denticola—associate with bleeding on probing.

Identify primary infected root canals, noting streptococcus as the most common bacteria and candida may be present; mutans is not a main component, and enterococcus may dominate in failed treatments.

Explore essential biology and physiology concepts for pharmacology within dental board exam prep, using Scholar's Dental online courses for Canadian and other exams.

Examine the cell structure, focusing on the two-layer phospholipid membrane as a selective barrier with channels and carriers. Explore rough and smooth ER, ribosomes, Golgi, mitochondria, and cytoplasm roles.

Explain how plasma protein binding and lipid solubility govern drug distribution, activity, and duration, with examples from local anesthetics and ionization effects on membrane crossing.

Explain acid-base reactions, including strong versus weak acids and bases, ionized and nonionized forms, and how pH and PKK govern membrane crossing and local anesthetic effectiveness in infection.

Examine membrane transport mechanisms, including passive diffusion, facilitated diffusion, and active transport, and understand osmosis and filtration in water and solute movement.

Identify how drugs target enzymes, ion channels, membrane receptors including G protein coupled and nuclear receptors to alter cellular activity via secondary messengers like cyclic AMP, cyclic GMP, and calcium.

Learn how intracellular and extracellular fluids distribute through hydrostatic and protein-driven forces, isotonic versus hypertonic solutions, and how edema arises after trauma or disease.

Explore resting membrane potential from potassium efflux and sodium gradients, creating a polarized inside-negative cell. Describe the action potential sequence—from threshold to depolarization, repolarization, and hyperpolarization—and the cardiac calcium plateau.

practice questions show that opening potassium channels hyperpolarizes neurons, while local anesthetics block sodium channels to prevent depolarization, with the ionized form binding the channel after crossing the membrane.

Explain how action potentials travel through neurons to chemical synapses, releasing acetylcholine and norepinephrine into the synaptic cleft to activate cholinergic and adrenergic receptors in the peripheral nervous system.

Explore the autonomic nervous system, including parasympathetic and sympathetic pathways, cholinergic signaling with nicotinic and muscarinic receptors, and norepinephrine and epinephrine effects on glands and heart.

Master adrenergic receptors: alpha1 constricts vessels raising blood pressure; beta1 increases heart rate. Activate epinephrine's broad adrenergic action; norepinephrine acts mainly at synapses and muscarinic stimulation causes meiosis.

Explore direct and indirect agonists and antagonists in cholinergic and adrenergic signaling, tracing neurotransmitter synthesis, release, receptor interactions, and metabolism by acetylcholinesterase and MAO.

Explore how the hypothalamus controls autonomic nervous system, and review the peripheral nervous system with its autonomic and somatic divisions, including sympathetic and parasympathetic pathways and their neurotransmitters and receptors.

Explore the central nervous system's complexity, contrasting it with the peripheral system, and learn key neurotransmitters like norepinephrine, serotonin, dopamine, GABA, and glutamate, including their inhibitory and excitatory roles.

Identify how GABA, norepinephrine, serotonin, and dopamine govern brain function and how benzodiazepines, barbiturates, MAOIs, TCAs, and SSRIs modulate them, linking to Parkinson's, tardive dyskinesia, and psychosis.

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