Oral Potentially Malignant Disorders among Dental Patients : a Pilot Study in Jordan

Peer reviewe

Age and the architecture of oral mucosa

Age changes affect the oral mucosa (the protective lining of the oral cavity), but few of these have been studied objectively. The aim of this study was to quantitatively analyse a number of morphometric parameters of the ageing oral mucosa. The fractal dimension of the epithelial connective tissue interface (ECTI) was estimated in 42 samples of normal buccal mucosa to correlate any changes in their irregularity to the age of the individuals. Morphometric parameters extracted from theoretical cell areas computed programatically were also analysed. Results showed no significant change in ECTI complexity associated with age; however, there was indication that epithelial cells tended to become larger and flatter with age. Interestingly, while some parameters did not show significant differences case wise, cluster analysis showed that the data clustered the cases into three main age groups: one representing the first two decades of life, another group represents adult life (21–50 years) and the last group representing the ageing population (50–90 years)

Efficacy of intraligamentary anesthesia in maxillary first molar extraction

Soukaina Tawfiq Ryalat,1 Mohammad H Al-Shayyab,1 Wala Amin,2 Saif Aldeen AlRyalat,3 Nosaiba Al-Ryalat,4 Faleh Sawair1 1Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Oral Medicine, and Periodontology, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan; 2Department of Prosthodontics, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan; 3Department of Ophthalmology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan; 4Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan Introduction: Infiltration anesthesia (IA) is the method to anaesthetize maxillary teeth successfully. In contrast, intraligamentary anesthesia (ILA) has been used as supplementary anesthesia during tooth extraction, particularly when regional block anesthesia has failed. In this study, we compare the efficacy of and patient satisfaction with ILA vs IA when extracting maxillary first molar teeth. Methods: Forty patients were enrolled in this study and 80 maxillary first molars extracted. All patients served as their own control, with ILA as the experimental side and IA as the control side. The two techniques were compared for efficacy using a visual analog scale (VAS) and patient satisfaction compared using a verbal rating scale (VRS). Results: The mean VAS pain score for extraction using ILA was lower than that for IA (20.30±3.18 and 13.93±1.95 mm, respectively; P<0.001). For injection pain, the mean VAS pain score in the ILA side was higher than the IA side (42.28±4.51 and 31.73±3.1 mm, respectively; P<0.001). VRS results showed a higher number of patients who felt that pain during ILA was greater than expected compared with IA. Conclusion: IA appears less painful during injection compared with ILA, and provides sufficient pain relief during extraction. However, ILA can be used when IA fails to achieve the desired pain suppression, as it provides higher extraction-pain relief. Keywords: infiltration anesthesia, maxillary first molars, intraligamentary anesthesia, periodontal intraligamentary anesthesi