Assessment and management of halitosis.

Halitosis is an unpleasant condition that may be the origin of concern not only for a possible health condition but also for frequent psychological alterations which may lead to social and personal isolation. The most frequent sources of halitosis that exist in the oral cavity include bacterial reservoirs such as the dorsum of the tongue, saliva and periodontal pockets. Volatile sulphur compounds (VSCs) are the prominent elements of oral malodour. Genuine halitosis and pseudo-halitosis should be in the treatment realm of dental practitioners. Clinical Relevance: Halitosis can be a symptom of underlying systemic disease, therefore the exact diagnosis and its source (oral or non-oral) is important in the proper approach to its management.

Denture hygiene habits among elderly patients wearing complete dentures.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the denture hygiene habits in complete denture patients according to their age and time of dentures. METHODS: In this study a self administered structured was developed to know the attitude of the patients regarding denture hygiene in the department of Prosthodontics. The total study sample consisted of 230 subjects including 124 (53.9%) males and 106 (46.1%) females. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 15.0 with chi-square test at p-value <0.05. RESULTS: Nearly half of the subjects clean their dentures daily once. Participants from the younger age group and who had been wearing dentures since 2 years maintain better frequency of cleaning. The majority of these subjects used water and brush for denture cleansing. After seeing the condition, half of the dentures were rated as good 50.3%, followed by fair and poor as 29.5 and 20.2% respectively. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Poor condition of complete dentures seen in the population is mainly due to irregularly cleansing habits and also less usage of cleansing solutions. Dentists should give proper instructions regarding maintenance of denture hygiene.

In vitro antifungal activity of two tissue conditioners combined with nystatin, miconazole and fluconazole against Candida albicans.

AIM: To determine and compare antifungal activity of two tissue conditioners combined with nystatin, miconazole and fluconazole against Candida albicans. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Two tissue conditioners Viscogel and GC Soft combined with nystatin, miconazole and fluconazole were tested against Candida albicans using agar core inhibition diameter assay. One-way analysis of variance followed by Tukey's post-hoc test was used to test the intergroup difference. p-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: Maximum inhibition was seen in the fluconazole groups followed by miconazole and the least inhibition was seen in case of nystatin group. CONCLUSION: Tissue conditioners when mixed with antifungal agents showed satisfactory inhibition of Candida albicans. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Incorporation of antifungal drugs into tissue conditioners shows good inhibition of C. albicans and can be recommended for clinical use.

Non-surgical management of an extraoral cutaneous sinus tract of odontogenic origin.

Chronic apical periodontitis associated with dental pulp necrosis is the main cause of odontogenic extraoral cutaneous sinus openings. These tracts are often initially misdiagnosed unless the treating clinician considers a dental aetiology. This case report of a 19-year-old woman describes the diagnosis and treatment of an extraoral cutaneous sinus tract of odontogenic origin. Non-surgical conservative endodontic therapy was opted as the involved teeth were restorable. One month after the completion of obturation, there was closure of the sinus tract. One year follow-up showed complete resolution of the sinus tract with minimal scar formation.

Zirconia in dental implantology: A review.

BACKGROUND: Titanium has been the most popular material of choice for dental implantology over the past few decades. Its properties have been found to be most suitable for the success of implant treatment. But recently, zirconia is slowly emerging as one of the materials which might replace the gold standard of dental implant, i.e., titanium. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Literature was searched to retrieve information about zirconia dental implant and studies were critically analyzed. PubMed database was searched for information about zirconia dental implant regarding mechanical properties, osseointegration, surface roughness, biocompatibility, and soft tissue health around it. The literature search was limited to English language articles published from 1975 to 2015. RESULTS: A total of 45 papers met the inclusion criteria for this review, among the relevant search in the database. CONCLUSION: Literature search showed that some of the properties of zirconia seem to be suitable for making it an ideal dental implant, such as biocompatibility, osseointegration, favourable soft tissue response and aesthetics due to light transmission and its color. At the same time, some studies also point out its drawbacks. It was also found that most of the studies on zirconia dental implants are short-term studies and there is a need for more long-term clinical trials to prove that zirconia is worth enough to replace titanium as a biomaterial in dental implantology.