[Soft laser and its application areas in oral surgery and stomatology]. / Der Low-Level-Laser in der Oralchirurgie und Stomatologie.

Low-level lasers (LLL) are used in the stomatology and oral surgery field of dentistry. Due to the biostimulation or biomodulation and photodynamic effect, the healing process of soft-tissue and bone wounds can be accelerated. The indication in oral surgery is to achieve a faster bone healing after tooth extraction, but also to improve the osseointegration in implants. The advantage in stomatology is pain alleviation and improved healing in aphthae and cold sores as well as symptom relief in mucositis. Due to the use free of side effects and low time effort, the LLL offers high patients' comfort.

Dental MRI of Oral Soft-Tissue Tumors-Optimized Use of Black Bone MRI Sequences and a 15-Channel Mandibular Coil.

Soft-tissue lesions in the oral cavity, one of the most common sites for tumors and tumor-like lesions, can be challenging to diagnose and treat due to the wide spectrum from benign indolent to invasive malignant lesions. We report an abnormally large, rapidly growing hyperplastic lesion originating from the buccal mucosa in a 28-year-old male patient. Clinical examination revealed a well-circumscribed, smooth-surfaced, pinkish nodular lesion measuring 2.3 × 2 cm, which suggested the differential diagnosis of irritation fibroma, pyogenic granuloma, oral lipoma, and other benign or malignant neoplasms such as hemangioma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, or metastases to the oral cavity. Dental MRI using a 15-channel mandibular coil was performed to improve perioperative radiological and surgical management, avoiding adverse intraoperative events and misdiagnosis of vascular malformations, especially hemangiomas. Black bone MRI protocols such as STIR (short-tau inversion recovery) and DESS (double-echo steady-state) were used for high-resolution radiation-free imaging. Radiologic findings supported the suspected diagnosis of an irritation fibroma and ruled out any further head and neck lesions, therefore complete surgical resection was performed. Histology confirmed the tentative diagnosis. This article evaluates the use of this novel technique for MR diagnosis in the perioperative management of soft-tissue tumors in oral and maxillofacial surgery.

Status report on dental implantology in Switzerland. An updated cross-sectional survey.

A status report of dental implantology in Switzerland has already been performed in 1994 and 2006. The present study, based on these former surveys, aimed to update these results for the year 2016. To this end, a questionnaire was sent to all dentists in Switzerland who were members of the Swiss Dental Society (SSO) at the time of the survey. The questionnaire asked for personal background data and obtained information about the dentists' knowledge and concepts when using implants, the extent to which they used implants and about specific implant systems, which were selected based on the previous surveys. Out of 3,168 questionnaires, 1,446 were returned (return rate: 45.6%). Approximately 91% of the responding dentists had a practical involvement in implantology (implant placement only, superstructure insertion only, or both). Just over half of them (53%) placed more than twenty implants per year. Good handling was chosen by all dentists (100%) as a selection criterion for the implant system they used preferably. The current data suggested that the range of indications had widened, yet that the edentulous mandible was still the indication of choice. The percentage of dentists engaged in dental implantology doubled from 1994 to 2006 (1994: 42.2%, 2006: 82.2%). An increase of almost 10% in dentists involved in dental implantology was also apparent from 2006 to 2016 (2006: 82.2%, 2016: 91%). Our data show that, whilst the relative number of implant users had greatly increased among Swiss dentists, their rationale to place implants has remained similar.