Prevalence of Oral Lesions in the Elderly.

OBJECTIVE: Geriatric dentistry refers to dealing with oral diseases including prevention and treatment in old individuals. The aim of this investigation was to examine the types and frequency of oral lesions in the elderly. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: The study involved 75 elderly persons. The clinical diagnosis was established by correlating the aetiological factor associated with the lesion and by systematic examination of the oral mucosa and classifying those alterations according to the epidemiological guidelines for the diagnosis of oral mucosal diseases. During the clinical examination, the following elements were analysed: features of the lesion, anatomical location, extension, aetiological factors or related factors, dental status, alcohol, tobacco, trauma, use of prosthesis and if such were well adapted. RESULTS: Sixty lesions were diagnosed in 75 patients. These were classified according to clinical, histopathological and microbiological diagnosis and were distributed into 15 different clinical entities. The more prevalent pathologies were inflammatory, reactive and associated with long-term use of prostheses or ill-adapted prostheses, since 67% of the patients with lesions were using prostheses. Of the lesions related to prosthesis use, denture stomatitis was the most common one, representing 20 cases (33.3%). The second most frequent lesion was erythematous candidiasis (10%). The other most frequent lesions in this study were lingua plicata, xerostomia and pseudomembranous candidiasis. CONCLUSION: Oral and perioral tissues undergo different functional and structural changes with ageing. The role of the dentist and stomatologist includes the management of systemic, nutritional and pharmacological oral manifestations in order to establish an early diagnosis and subsequent accurate treatment.

The Condition of Oral Health in Regular Users of Psychoactive Substances.

OBJECTIVE: Besides various harmful effects on the overall health, chronic consumption of psychoactive substances has different consequences on oral health. The goal of this paper was to examine the condition of oral health in psychoactive substance users during the healing process and to do a comparative analysis of maintaining oral hygiene before and during the substance abuse treatment. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: The study included 26 regular users of psychoactive substance. All the respondents used different types of psychoactive substances for at least two years and were treated for three months. The examination was divided into two parts. The first included completing the questionnaires that contained questions related to maintaining oral hygiene while using psychoactive substances and during the substance abuse treatment (the moment of interviewing). The second included the clinical examination of the respondents during the therapy. RESULTS: Taking into account all information collected from the questionnaires, respondents used heroin statistically significantly more than all the other substances (p < 0.001), while snorting was the most common way of consuming; this was statistically significantly more common than all the other ways, separately (p < 0.001). During therapy, a significantly greater number of the addicts used some aids for maintaining oral hygiene and the percentage of those users rose from 19.23% to 61.54% (p < 0.01). The clinical examination confirmed that the majority of the respondents had gingivitis, 23 (88.46%). CONCLUSION: In the users of psychoactive substances, gingiva and other periodontal tissues suffer the worst damage, but when the healing process starts, the awareness about the importance of maintaining oral hygiene improves.

Stem cells for periodontal regeneration.

Periodontal regeneration is considered to be biologically possible but clinically unpredictable. In periodontitis, inflammation manifests clinically as loss of supporting periodontal tissues and regeneration of damaged tissue is the main goal of treatment. For decades, periodontists have sought to repair the damage through a variety of surgical procedures, and use of grafting materials and growth factors, and of barrier membranes. Reports have emerged that demonstrate which populations of adult stem cells reside in the periodontal ligaments of humans and other animals. This opens the way for new cell-based therapies for periodontal regeneration. This review provides an overview of adult human stem cells and their potential use in periodontal regeneration.