Dentistry a second time?

INTRODUCTION: Dentistry in Jordan is an attractive profession due to the high social standard it provides. This study aimed to investigate whether dentists would choose dentistry again and whether their professional expectations would change after years of practice. Of special interest were possible differences according to gender, age, degree and place of work. METHODS: A self-completion questionnaire was filled by a stratified random sample of 355 dentists in Jordan using closed questions. The questionnaire included professional, social and economic factors that influenced people's choice of dentistry and whether they would choose it again and the reasons for that. RESULTS: The results showed that 52% of dentists who returned the questionnaire had dentistry as their first choice; the most important determining factor was the dentist's grades in the general secondary education. Fifty-two per cent stated that they would not choose it for the second time, the main reason being the health problems acquired through the profession and the low income. Helping others and the social standard dentistry provides were the main reasons given for dentists to choose dentistry again. CONCLUSION: We report that more than half of the dentists included in this study would not 'choose dentistry again' as their profession regardless of age, gender and degree. This is mainly due to health problems acquired and the low income. We found that job satisfaction is highly affected by the workplace, and that more females are dissatisfied by the profession. This suggests that cultural background strongly affects the career decision.

Morphometrical differences between pseudo-epitheliomatous hyperplasia in granular cell tumours and squamous cell carcinomas.

AIM: Granular cell tumour (GCT) is a benign tumour which occasionally induces pseudo-epitheliomatous hyperplasia (PEH) of the covering epithelium, mimicking squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) invasion. PEH cells do not show marked atypia, but the presence of pseudoinvasive patterns remains a diagnostic problem since several misdiagnosed cases have been reported. This study investigated objective morphometric criteria to distinguish GCT-PEH from SCC. METHODS AND RESULTS: The complexity of the epithelial connective tissue interface (ECTI) in 57 profiles from nine SCC and 12 GCT-PEH cases was analysed using fractal geometry. Epithelial and non-epithelial cells were segmented using a space partition procedure and analysed morphometrically. GCT ECTI profiles were significantly more complex than those of SCC. The complexity of ECTI quantified by global and local fractal dimensions allowed up to 86% correct discrimination between GCT-PEH and SCC. The cell-wise discrimination between the two entities using cellular morphology was 76% but when the two approaches were combined, the correct discrimination was 96%. CONCLUSIONS: The architectural features of GCT-PEH and SCC show differences which, when quantified, could be used to differentiate the two diagnostic classes. Characterization of these differences may help to elucidate some of the mechanisms of tumour infiltration and metastasis.