Dental practice in the era of COVID-19: A review of literature.

Dental practitioners confront the highest risk of COVID-19 infection due to constant exposure to saliva, droplets, blood, and aerosols. Despite the suspension of routine dental care in many countries around the world, dental professionals perceive a moral duty to take part in the global fight against the pandemic. Therefore, dental professionals should be vigilant in defending against the transmission of the virus and as well as in the diagnosis of the disease through the oral manifestations of it. We conducted a literature review on publicly available data to outline updates on guidelines and studies of dental settings during the COVID-19 era. In this literature review, the categorization of the patients for dental treatments, protective precautions for the dental practice, considerations for dental drug prescription, and oral manifestations of the disease has been reviewed.

Applying dental implant therapy in patients with oral lichen planus: a review of literature.

Lichen planus (LP) is a violent, paranormal inflammatory disease that can affect the skin or any lining of the mucous membrane. LPs are a branch of immune-mediated inflammatory disease (IMID) that collaborates with the function and structure of the immune system that are precipitated through various etiological infectious agents. Oral lichen planus (OLP) is one of the most common kinds of IMID. These traumas might limit the normal life of patients and, in some cases, can be treated spontaneously. In patients who are affected by OLP, the dental clinicians must be capable of the proper diagnosis of the disorder. Dental implants are progressively applied for the treatment of partial or complete edentulism. Implant rehabilitation in OLP patients is one of the main challenges for patients and dental clinicians. There is not enough knowledge about this condition, and also medical documents are limited. In this study, by conducting a comprehensive review of literature, we tried to collect related data around the safety and success rate of implant rehabilitation in patients who suffer from OLP disorder. There proved to be no relation between implant survival rate and OLP diseases, but it is proven that some factors such as bone quality and fracture resistance, parafunctional habits, and resection of the marginal mandible could powerfully affect it. For evaluation of the advantages and disadvantages of applying implants in patients with OLP disorders, implementation of controlled studies is required.

Efficacy of Low-Level Laser, Hard Occlusal Appliance and Conventional Pharmacotherapy in the Management of Myofascial Pain Dysfunction Syndrome; A Preliminary Study.

Introduction: Myofascial pain dysfunction syndrome (MPDS) is a common temporomandibular joint disorder. Due to its multifactorial etiology, treatment usually involves more than one modality to obtain complementary results. The purpose of this study was to compare the combined effect of a low-level laser, a hard occlusal appliance, and conventional pharmacotherapy with pharmacotherapy only in the management of patients with MPDS. Methods: In this study, 15 patients with MPDS were diagnosed and randomly assigned to 3 groups (n=5). Subjects in Group 1 were treated with pharmacotherapy (PT); Group 2 received the diode laser (940 nm gallium arsenide) every other day for a total of 10 sessions, plus pharmacotherapy (PTL) and Group 3 were given hard occlusal splint 12 h/day for 4 weeks, plus pharmacotherapy (PTO). The intensity of pain was measured using the visual analog scale (VAS) prior to the treatment, 2 and 4 weeks after the onset of treatment and 2 weeks later. The maximum painless mouth opening and pain intensity at muscle palpation were also recorded. Comparisons were made between the groups via repeated measure analysis of variance (ANOVA) (P<0.05). Results: Pain relief in the subjective VAS was observed in both laser and appliance groups in the third and fourth examination sessions (P<0.05). No statistically significant reduction in pain was noted using pharmacotherapy only. The maximum painless mouth opening and muscle tenderness were not significantly different between the 3 groups (P>0.05). Conclusion: Both the laser and the occlusal appliance combined with pharmacotherapy proved to be effective for pain reduction in patients with MPDS. All groups, however, failed to result in a significant improvement in the maximum mouth opening or tenderness in masticatory muscles.

Relationship of stimulated saliva 17beta-estradiol and oral dryness feeling in menopause.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to compare stimulated whole saliva 17beta-estradiol of menopausal women with/without oral dryness (OD) feeling, and evaluate the relationship between saliva 17beta-estradiol and severity of OD feeling. METHODS: A case-control study was carried out in 76 selected menopausal women aged 41-77 years with or without OD feeling (38 as case and 38 as control) conducted at the Clinic of Oral Medicine, Tehran university of medical sciences. Paraffin-stimulated saliva samples were obtained by expectoration. Xerostomia inventory (XI) score was used as an index of OD feeling severity. The saliva 17beta-estradiol concentration was measured by ELISA. Statistical analysis of Student's t-test and Spearman correlation was used. RESULTS: No significant difference was found in stimulated whole saliva flow rate between the two groups, but the mean concentration and output of saliva 17beta-estradiol were significantly lower in case than control. There was significant negative correlation between XI score and stimulated whole saliva concentration (r=-0.391, P=0.004) and output (r=-0.302, P=0.002) of 17beta-estradiol in menopausal women. CONCLUSIONS: It seems that there is a negative correlation between OD feeling severity and stimulated whole saliva 17beta-estradiol in menopausal women.

Determining salivary and serum levels of iron, zinc and vitamin B12 in patients with geographic tongue.

Background. Benign migratory glossitis or geographic tongue, whose cause still remains a mystery, emerges as annular lesions on the dorsal surface of the tongue. Several reasons have been reported for this condition, including vitamin deficiencies, digestive disorders, emotional stress and nutritional deficiencies. In order to introduce an efficient treatment for the geographic tongue, the present study investigated the levels of iron, zinc and vitamin B12 in the blood and saliva. Methods. The present study evaluated 40 subjects. The oral disease specialists examined the patients in the Dental School, Tehran University International Campus and Mashhad Dental School. Accordingly, inclusion and exclusion criteria were used to enroll the patients. The blood and salivary samples were collected from the case and control groups. Finally, independent t-test was used to analyze the data. Results. Overall, 20 subjects suffered from geographic tongue. They consisted of 8 females and 12 males, with a mean age of 33.5±4.8 and age range of 19‒49 years. Moreover, the mean age and age range of the healthy subjects were 29.40±7.5 and 24‒25 years, respectively. It should be pointed out that the subjects were equally divided into 10 males and 10 females. There was no difference between other variables in the blood and saliva. Conclusion. The results showed that patients with geographic tongue had lower levels of salivary zinc, compared to the control group. Although iron and vitamin B12 affect the lingual papillae, their serum and salivary levels did not change.