Suspected Endodontic Failure in a Patient with Cleidocranial Dysplasia: A Case Report.

A patient's medical history and related dental manifestations can significantly contribute to confounding signs and symptoms leading to a diagnostic challenge. An 18-year-old female patient presented with persistent radiographic radiolucency associated with the apex of a previously treated tooth (tooth 9); asymptomatic apical periodontitis and endodontic failure were suspected. This report presents how a patient's condition of cleidocranial dysplasia had a profound effect on her dental history, which included the presence of multiple supernumerary teeth. Extensive surgical intervention during the patient's childhood was required to remove the supernumerary teeth, which resulted in an endodontic misdiagnosis in her adult life. After clinical and radiographic examination, the patient was diagnosed with a periapical scar. Periapical fibrous scars have a prevalence of between 2.5% and 12% and are a rare healing process with fibrous tissue after surgical and nonsurgical interventions. This report describes the diagnosis and pathophysiology of fibrous scars, including their risk factors and long-term monitoring approaches.

Electrical stimulation to clinically identify position of the lingual nerve: results of 50 subjects with reliability and correlation with MRI.

PURPOSE: Recently we described mapping of the lingual nerve clinically in patients using electrical nerve stimulation. This paper reports results of a larger study with inter- and intra-observer reliability and comparison with positional measurements from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). METHODS: In 50 healthy participants, measurements were taken when subjects felt a tingling sensation in the tongue induced by a stimulation probe over the lingual nerve. Three positions were measured in relation to the third molar. Measurement reliability was tested for both inter-observer and intra-observer agreement and positional data of the lingual nerve measured clinically was also compared with nerve position as measured from MRI scans. RESULTS: Out of 50 participants, 96 nerves (49 = left/47 = right) were included in the study. The lingual nerve was identified in 90% (87) of this sample. The mean of height of the nerve in points A, B and C were 9.64 mm, 10.77 mm and 12.34 respectively. Inter-and intra-observer agreement was considered to be good to excellent (ICC = 0.8-0.96). Agreement between nerve mapping measured values and MRI measured values was good (ICC < 0.6). CONCLUSION: This technique may prove useful for the clinical determination of lingual nerve position prior to procedures in the third molar region.