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AIM: A healthy diet could help to prevent both oral and systemic diseases, with dentists and nutritionists supplementing their skills. The dental setting, where patients periodically refer to seeking oral health care, represents a powerful opportunity for nutritional counselling. To the best of our knowledge, no study is available on patients' attitudes towards dietary counselling in the dental setting. This cross-sectional study investigates patients' attitude towards receiving nutritional support within the dental setting and it elucidates whether a transdisciplinary approach would be well accepted. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A questionnaire was administered to patients attending three different clinics: a private clinic, a hospital dental clinic of the national healthcare system and the private dental practice within the same hospital. RESULTS: Three hundred thirteen questionnaires were collected. Most dental patients acknowledged receiving nutritional advice from both dentists and nutritionists. The nutritionist within the dental setting was positively perceived, providing useful advice to prevent oral and systemic diseases and also drawing up a diet with periodic follow-ups. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: These findings support the positive attitude of patients towards receiving nutritional counselling within the dental setting. The dental clinics can be pivotal in oral and systemic disease screening and prevention and a multidisciplinary approach is highly encouraged.
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Vaccine technology has evolved continuously since its beginning, and mucosal vaccination, including intranasal, sublingual, and oral administrations, has recently gained great scientific interest. The oral mucosa represents a promising minimally invasive route for antigen delivery, mainly at sublingual and buccal mucosal sites, and it is easily accessible, immunologically rich, and able to promote an effective systemic and local immune response. The aim of this review is to provide an updated overview on the technologies for oral mucosal vaccination, with emphasis on mucoadhesive biomaterial-based delivery systems. Polymeric-based nanoparticles, multilayer films and wafers, liposomes, microneedles, and thermoresponsive gels are the most investigated strategies to deliver antigens locally, showing mucoadhesive properties, controlled release of the antigen, and the ability to enhance immunological responses. These formulations have achieved adequate properties in terms of vaccine stability, are minimally invasive, and are easy to produce and manage. To date, oral mucosa vaccine delivery systems represent a promising and open field of research. Future directions should focus on the role of these systems to induce sustained innate and adaptive immune responses, by integrating the recent advances achieved in mucoadhesion with those related to vaccine technology. Being painless, easy to administer, highly stable, safe, and effective, the antigen delivery systems via the oral mucosa may represent a useful and promising strategy for fast mass vaccination, especially during pandemic outbreaks.
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Sistemas de Liberação de Medicamentos , Vacinas , Mucosa Bucal , Vacinação , LipossomosRESUMO
AIM: Localised juvenile spongiotic gingival hyperplasia (LJSGH) is a benign lesion occurring in young patients as gingival erythema and overgrowth, typically localised on gingiva of maxillary incisors. The aim of this work is to report a case of LJSGH where complete spontaneous regression was achieved together with a review of the literature on the topic. CASE REPORT: An 8-year-old girl was referred for a gingival painless lesion, which had appeared spontaneously one year before and was refractory to periodontal treatment. Intraoral examination showed a well-defined, red gingival overgrowth involving the left maxillary central incisor, without involving the marginal gingiva. The clinical diagnosis of LJSGH was made, due to the pathognomonic aspect. The patient was periodically recalled for 43 months; at the last visit, the lesion was spontaneously resolved. RESULTS: LJSGH is not plaque-related and not responsive to periodontal treatment. Surgical removal of the lesions correlates with high recurrence, while spontaneous resolution over time has been hardly demonstrated. CONCLUSION: Follow-up of LJSGH may be an option of care, alternative to surgery, in selected cases.
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Hiperplasia Gengival , Criança , Assistência Odontológica , Feminino , Gengiva , Hiperplasia Gengival/cirurgia , Humanos , IncisivoRESUMO
Periodontal regeneration is still a challenge for periodontists and tissue engineers, as it requires the simultaneous restoration of different tissues-namely, cementum, gingiva, bone, and periodontal ligament (PDL). Here, we synthetized a chitosan (CH)-based trilayer porous scaffold to achieve periodontal regeneration driven by multitissue simultaneous healing. We produced 2 porous compartments for bone and gingiva regeneration by cross-linking with genipin either medium molecular weight (MMW) or low molecular weight (LMW) CH and freeze-drying the resulting scaffolds. We synthetized a third compartment for PDL regeneration by CH electrochemical deposition; this allowed us to produce highly oriented microchannels of about 450-µm diameter intended to drive PDL fiber growth toward the dental root. In vitro characterization showed rapid equilibrium water content for MMW-CH and LMW-CH compartments (equilibrium water content after 5 min >85%). The MMW-CH compartment degraded more slowly and provided significantly more resistance to compression (28% ± 1% of weight loss at 4 wk; compression modulus HA = 18 ± 6 kPa) than the LMW-CH compartment (34% ± 1%; 7.7 ± 0.8 kPa) as required to match the physiologic healing rates of bone and gingiva and their mechanical properties. More than 90% of all human primary periodontal cell populations tested on the corresponding compartment survived during cytocompatibility tests, showing active cell metabolism in the alkaline phosphatase and collagen deposition assays. In vivo tests showed high biocompatibility in wild-type mice, tissue ingrowth, and vascularization within the scaffold. Using the periodontal ectopic model in nude mice, we preseeded scaffold compartments with human gingival fibroblasts, osteoblasts, and PDL fibroblasts and found a dense mineralized matrix within the MMW-CH region, with weakly mineralized deposits at the dentin interface. Together, these results support this resorbable trilayer scaffold as a promising candidate for periodontal regeneration.
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Quitosana/farmacologia , Regeneração Tecidual Guiada Periodontal/métodos , Alicerces Teciduais , Animais , Biomimética , Sobrevivência Celular , Células Cultivadas , Reagentes de Ligações Cruzadas/química , Fibroblastos , Gengiva/citologia , Humanos , Imuno-Histoquímica , Teste de Materiais , Camundongos , Microscopia Eletrônica de Varredura , Osteoblastos , Ligamento Periodontal/citologia , Polímeros/química , Porosidade , Espectroscopia de Infravermelho com Transformada de Fourier , Propriedades de SuperfícieRESUMO
Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) serotype O157:H7 is one of the most important human pathogenic microorganisms, which can cause life-threatening infections. Xanthium strumarium L. is a plant with anti-bacterial activity against gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria. This study aims to demonstrate in vitro efficacy of the essential oil (EO) extracted from Xanthium strumarium L. against E. coli O157:H7. Using the agar test diffusion, the effect of Xanthium strumarium L. EO (5, 10, 15, 30, 60, and 120 mg/mL) was verified at each of the four different growth phases of E. coli O157:H7. Cell counts of viable cells and colony forming unit (CFU) were determined at regular time points using Breed's method and colony counting method, respectively. No viable cell was detectable after the 1 hour-exposure to X. strumarium EO at 30, 60, and 120 mg/mL concentrations. No bacterial colony was formed after 1 h until the end of the incubation period at 24 h. At lower concentrations, the number of bacteria cells decreased and colonies could be observed only after incubation. At the exponential phase, the EO at 15 mg/mL was only bacteriostatic, while from 30 mg/mL started to be bactericidal. X. strumarium EO antibacterial activity against Shiga toxin-producing E. coli O157:H7 is dependent on EO concentration and physiological state of the microorganisms tested. The best inhibitory activity was achieved during the late exponential and the stationary phases.
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Antibacterianos/farmacologia , Óleos Voláteis/farmacologia , Escherichia coli Shiga Toxigênica/efeitos dos fármacos , Xanthium/química , Técnicas de Cultura Celular por Lotes , Humanos , Testes de Sensibilidade Microbiana , Padrões de Referência , Escherichia coli Shiga Toxigênica/crescimento & desenvolvimentoRESUMO
Veronica genus (Plantaginaceae) is broadly distributed in different habitats. In this study, the inhibitory activity of free soluble and conjugated phenolic extracts of Veronica persica on key enzymes associated to type 2 diabetes (α-glucosidase and α-amylase) and hypertension (angiotensin I converting enzyme, ACE) was assessed, as well as their antioxidant power. Our results showed that both the extracts inhibited α-amylase, α-glucosidase and ACE in a dose-dependent manner. In particular, free phenolic extract significantly (P<0.05) inhibited α-glucosidase (IC50 532.97 µg/mL), whereas conjugated phenolic extract significantly (P<0.05) inhibited α-amylase (IC50 489.73 µg/mL) and ACE (290.06 µg/mL). The enzyme inhibitory activities of the extracts were not associated with their phenolic content. Anyway, the inhibition of α-amylase, α-glucosidase and ACE, along with the antioxidant capacity of the phenolic-rich extracts, could represent a putative mechanism through which V. persica exerts its antidiabetes and antihypertension effects.
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Antioxidantes/metabolismo , Diabetes Mellitus Tipo 2/tratamento farmacológico , Diabetes Mellitus Tipo 2/enzimologia , Hipertensão/tratamento farmacológico , Hipertensão/enzimologia , Fenóis/química , Extratos Vegetais/uso terapêutico , Veronica/química , Inibidores da Enzima Conversora de Angiotensina/farmacologia , Inibidores Enzimáticos/farmacologia , Inibidores de Glicosídeo Hidrolases/farmacologia , Inibidores de Glicosídeo Hidrolases/uso terapêutico , Humanos , Concentração Inibidora 50 , Extratos Vegetais/farmacologia , alfa-Amilases/antagonistas & inibidores , alfa-Amilases/metabolismo , alfa-Glucosidases/metabolismoRESUMO
Despite the protective role of diets rich in fruit plant polyphenols against some cancers and chronic degenerative and inflammatory diseases, insufficient emphasis has been placed on oral health. Numerous studies have aimed to ascertain the role of polyphenols in the prevention and treatment of oral diseases; however, even when in vitro evidence appears convincing, the same is not true for in vivo studies, and thus there is a general paucity of solid evidence based on animal and clinical trials. To the best of our knowledge, only two reviews of polyphenols and oral health have been published; however, neither considered the potential role of whole plant extracts, which contain mixtures of many polyphenols that are often not completely identified. In the present study, our main aim was to review the current state of knowledge (search period: January 1965 to March 2011) on the effects of plant extracts/polyphenols on oral health. We found data on grapes, berries, tea, cocoa, coffee, myrtle, chamomile, honey/propolis, aloe extracts and the three main groups of polyphenols (stilbenes, flavonoids and proanthocyanidins). Their effects on caries, gingivitis, periodontal disease, candidiasis, oral aphtae, oral mucositis, oral lichen planus, leukoplakia and oral cancer were investigated. The data suggest that there is a lack of strong evidence, in particular regarding randomized clinical trials. However, a fascinating starting point has been provided by pre-clinical studies that have shown interesting activities of polyphenols against the most common oral diseases (caries, periodontitis and candidiasis), as well as in oral cancer prevention.