Antimicrobial peptides: an essential component of the skin defensive barrier.

The skin is positioned at the interface between an organism's internal milieu and an external environment characterized by constant assault with potential microbial pathogens. While the skin was formerly considered an inactive physical protective barrier that participates in host immune defense merely by blocking entry of microbial pathogens, it is now apparent that a major role of the skin is to defend the body by rapidly mounting an innate immune response to injury and microbial insult. In the skin, both resident and infiltrating cells synthesize and secrete small peptides that demonstrate broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity against bacteria, fungi, and enveloped viruses. Antimicrobial peptides also act as multifunctional immune effectors by stimulating cytokine and chemokine production, angiogenesis, and wound healing. Cathelicidins and defensins comprise two major families of skin-derived antimicrobial peptides, although numerous others have been described. Many such immune defense molecules are currently being developed therapeutically in an attempt to combat growing bacterial resistance to conventional antibiotics.

Dental hygiene students and the developmentally disabled.

Dental hygiene students from Hudson Valley Community College were introduced to the subject of developmental disabilities during their senior year. Each student received three hours of lecture and spent one afternoon in the dental clinic of the O. D. Heck Developmental Center. The Personal Attribute Inventory was administered to the students before and after the program to determine attitudes about mental retardation. A determination was made as to whether the timing of the visit to the center, relative to the presentation of the lectures, made a difference in students' attitudes. No statistically significant difference in attitudes was found between the beginning and the end of the year, and there were no changes in attitudes attributable to the placement of the lectures vis-à-vis the site visit.

A comparison between stainless steel crowns and multisurface amalgams in primary molars.

From the findings in this study, it appears that steel crowns for primary teeth are significantly superior to multisurface amalgam fillings, in terms of the percentage of teeth requiring subsequent care: 88.7 percent of the teeth initially restored with amalgam required follow-up treatment, and only 30.3 percent of the crowned teeth required such treatment. Because both types of restorations were studied for approximately the same length of time, one could not justly conclude that the crowns were superior in terms of longevity. Steel crowns may prove to be more economical for the patient than amalgam fillings, if follow-up visits are considered. The author plans to conduct a second study on the cost factor.

Sedation of the autistic patient for dental procedures.

It would be wrong to draw firm conclusions in this paper, because the methodology was highly subjective. However, the authors are of the opinion that certain conclusions can be drawn: Autistic individuals, even those with wildly aberrant behavior, can frequently receive dental treatment in a routine manner, if adequately sedated. Various sedative drugs may be effective. Combinations of drugs may be successful, where individual drugs have failed. The authors found the combination of Nisentil and Phenergan, supplemented with Vistaril when needed, to be especially effective. N2O-O2 analgesia appears to be beneficial, either alone or as an adjunct to other medications.