9-year follow-up of uncommon cleft palate in Aarskog-Scott syndrome

Aarskog-Scott syndrome (AAS) is characterized by different facial, skeletal and genital anomalies and may have oral manifestations. A 7-year-old boy was referred to the University General Hospital for treatment of speech difficulties and frequent regurgitation. Characteristics such as a triangle-shaped face, hypertelorism, low-set ears, flattened nose, shawl scrotum and partial syndactylia on hands and feet were observed. Based on these clinical features, the child was diagnosed with AAS. Upon intraoral examination, maxillary atresia and an incomplete cleft palate were observed. The mixed dentition was characterized by extensive coronary destruction of primary teeth and caries lesions on permanent teeth. Here, the case of a 9-year follow-up of this child with uncommon AAS associated with cleft palate is reported. The child was referred to a multidisciplinary team for planning and carrying out the treatment. In the follow-up visit after 9 years from the beginning of the treatment, the child showed greater sociability, with significant improvement in spontaneous speech and pronunciation of phonemes. However, the patient continues until now with articulation and spontaneous speech training. The correction of class II malocclusion, better dental alignment and canine extrusion were achieved. At the moment, the patient uses a nighttime extraoral device, and the treatment continues for dental alignment and prevention of tooth decay. The presence of cleft palate could be coincidental with AAS and may aggravate the prognosis, requiring careful patient monitoring by a multiprofessional team

Can different stages of leprosy treatment influence the profile of oral health? Oral status in leprosy

The aim of study was to evaluate the oral health status, salivary flow and halitosis among individuals diagnosed with leprosy as compared with healthy subjects. A sample of 160 individuals was allocated into four groups, as follows: (G1) individuals with complete leprosy treatment; (G2) individuals diagnosed with leprosy and under multi-drug therapy; (G3) individuals diagnosed with leprosy not yet under treatment; and (G4) healthy individuals. Then individuals were submitted to periodontal clinical examination (visible plaque index, bleeding index, depth of probing and clinical attachment level); DMFT index (decayed-missing-filled teeth index); evaluation of salivary flow and halitosis using a halimeter equipment (Interscan Corp, Chatsworth, CA, USA). The data were analyzed using Kruskal-Wallis and chi-square tests. The mean DMFT was found to be higher than 6.6, which is considered very high, with no significant difference between groups (P>0.05). As for salivary flow, 76.2% of the subjects presented normal flow rates, while 10% and 13.7% showed low and very low salivary flow rates, respectively, with hyposalivation being mostly observed in Groups 1 and 2. The highest prevalence of noticeable odor was found in healthy individuals (G4), and the most prevalent periodontal diagnosis was gingivitis (63.1%) in Group 3 (individuals with leprosy not yet under multi-drug therapy) followed by periodontitis (25%) in Group 1 (individuals who had completed leprosy treatment). It was observed that individuals with a history of leprosy present poor oral health similar to that of systemically healthy individuals