Profile of cancer patients requiring dental and oral-maxillofacial prostheses in a Brazilian subpopulation.

BACKGROUND: The aim of the present study was to identify the profile of cancer patients in need of rehabilitation with dental and/or oral-maxillofacial prostheses and evaluate possible reasons for not concluding the rehabilitation process. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A retrospective observational study was conducted at the Dentistry Department of the Mato Grosso Cancer Hospital in the city of Cuiabá, Brazil, involving the analysis of the medical records of patients under care from April 2017 to November 2019. RESULTS: The study population comprised 256 patients who met the inclusion criteria. A total of 30.90% of the patients were older adults, 65.6% were men, 70.3% had brown skin color, 27.3% were retired, 49.2% were married and 52% resided in municipalities in the state of Mato Grosso other than the capital. A total of 67.23% reported smoking and 53.9% reported alcohol consumption. The tumor was located in the head and neck region in 57.4%. The most frequent histological type was epidermoid carcinoma (55.1%). A total of 28.9% of cases were in disease stage IV. Most patients (60.2%) completed prosthetic rehabilitation, with a predominance of total prosthesis. The main reasons for not completing rehabilitation were the patient's death and weakness. CONCLUSIONS: Patients who started treatment in more advanced stages of cancer had a greater chance of not completing the prosthetic rehabilitation. The non-completion of treatment was directly related to death and the state of weakness. Key words:Cancer, dental prosthesis, epidemiology, maxillofacial prosthesis, oral rehabilitation.

Canal Transportation, Centering Ability, and Dentin Removal after Instrumentation: A Micro-CT Evaluation.

AIM: The aim of this study is to evaluate and compare root canal transportation, centering ability, and amount of dentin removed after root instrumentation with different rotary and reciprocating systems, using micro-computed tomography (micro-CT). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Forty curved mesial canals of lower molars were selected and divided into four experimental groups (n = 10) according to the system used: protaper next (PTN), wave one gold (WOG), prodesign logic (LOG), and vortex blue (VTX). The roots were scanned before and after instrumentation using micro-CT, with a 16 µm isotropic resolution. RESULTS: Data were statistically analyzed using the Bioestat and the significance level was set at 0.05. For canal transportation, no significant differences were verified between the groups at 6 mm or 9 mm from the apex. At the apical third, LOG had a smaller mesial deviation when compared with PTN. A significant difference was found at the apical and coronal thirds, though with LOG having the best centering ability at the apical third and the worst one at the coronal third. All systems caused a greater wear at the coronal third (9 mm), decreasing at the apical one (3 mm), with statistically significant differences. LOG removed less dentin from the apical third (3 mm) than did the other instruments. CONCLUSION: The systems evaluated presented different results for canal transportation, centering ability, and dentin removal at each third. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: The systems were evaluated together to evaluate neither the marked dental deviations nor the long-term signifiers of the databases and they were evaluated within the limits of normality. Therefore, they can be used without risks of embrittlement of the dental roots.

Diagnosis of alveolar and root fractures in macerated canine maxillae: a comparison between two different CBCT protocols.

OBJECTIVES: To compare two small-field-of-view (FOV) CBCT protocols with different voxel sizes and number of frames for the diagnosis of root and alveolar fractures in macerated canine maxillae. METHODS: 80 incisor teeth from the canine species were inserted in 80 anterior alveolar sockets of 20 canine maxillae. An operator randomly divided each maxilla site (80 sites in total) into 4 equal groups of 20 sites: 1 (sound tooth and non-fractured alveolar socket); 2 (sound tooth and fractured alveolar socket); 3 (fractured root and non-fractured alveolar socket); and 4 (fractured root and fractured alveolar socket). The CBCT images were obtained using two different protocols: normal (N) (voxel 0.20 mm, 400 frames and radiation exposure 5.6 mGy) and high definition (HD) (voxel 0.15 mm, 500 frames and radiation exposure 7.0 mGy). RESULTS: Sensitivity numbers for alveolar fractures were lower than specificity, resulting in comparable areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUC) for both protocols. Sensitivity, specificity and AUC for N and HD protocols were very similar for root fractures. When comparing AUC for both N and HD protocols by submitting them to Student's t-test, the comparison among the curves produced statistically non-significant results for alveolar fractures and root fractures likewise. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings demonstrated that the elected protocol for the diagnosis of root and alveolar fractures was N. This protocol allowed similar diagnosis results than HD protocol; however, with a lower amount of radiation exposure for the patient (5.6 mGy for N vs 7.0 mGy for HD).

Dental trauma prevention with mouthguard in a nose fracturing blow to the face: Case report.

Orofacial injuries are common in sports activities and may vary in complexity and the tissues involved. Most sports-related trauma occurs when a player hits another player, an object or the ground. This report presents a case of an injury caused by a punchlike blow to the face during a handball college team practice session. The patient suffered a traumatic blow to the left side of the nose and mouth and promptly attended a dentist. After a clinical examination and a CBCT scan, the following injuries were diagnosed: upper lip laceration, upper left lateral incisor subluxation and anterior nasal spine fracture. More severe teeth injuries were likely prevented because the patient was wearing a mouthguard.