Indian Journal of Dental Education

Ameloblastic fibroma (AF) is an uncommon true mixed odontogenic tumor, frequently diagnosed in the first two decades of life and presented as a well defined unilocular or multilocular radiolucency. We report an unusual case of AF mimicking a periapical lesion in a 22‑year‑old male as a painless swelling associated with a carious molar. The patient underwent surgery and the lesion was excised, subsequently submitted for histopathological examination. Thus, this paper highlights the importance of submission of periapical tissue for its histopathological examination.

Masticatory muscle pain (MMP) is a painful disorder involving the muscle of mastication, presenting with varied manifestations of jaw pain. These conditions range from the muscle pain being the primary condition or secondary to other diseases. A thorough clinical examination, following careful patient history will facilitate in establishing a tentative diagnosis following prompt treatment therapies. The article mainly empathies with the systematic overview of various type of masticatory muscle disorders in terms of their clinical implications, prevention and management and as well enlightens the importance of accurate identification and differentiation of MMP from primary temporomandibular joint disorders such as those involving pain from osteoarthritis, disc displacement, or jaw dysfunction.

Oral cancer may arise de-novo or may be preceded by Oral Potentially Malignant Disorders (OPMDs). Chemerin is multifunctional adipokine with important role in regulating angiogenesis, cell proliferation and inflammation. Chemerin expression could be helpful for evaluating the progressive risk of OPMDs like OSMF and also help in evaluating prognosis of OSCC. In the present study total 80 subjects were assessed for serum chemerin levels. Among these 20 were healthy controls and 20 cases each of OSMF, OSMF associated OSCC and OSCC. The values of serum chemerin were compared between controls and cases and also amongst the clinical stages of the study groups. our study demonstrated a progressively statistically significant increase in mean serum chemerin levels in OSMF cases, OSMF associated OSCC cases and OSCC cases than the controls. Thus serum chemerin level can be used as an adjunctive serum biomarker for predicting the malignant potential of OSMF and diagnosis of OSMF associated OSCC and OSCC.

Introduction: Cotinine, a major nicotine metabolite is a specific biomarker for nicotine exposure. Salivary cotinine levels is an easy and effective alternative for screening large groups especially children and adolescents. The present study was aimed at evaluating prevalence of tobacco consumption habits, determine the age of initiation and correlate the findings with their salivary cotinine levels.

Material and methods: The study was conducted among 95 students from schools in Karad. A validated questionnaire was administered to collect data regarding the awareness and tobacco consumption among the study group. Unstimulated saliva sample (1ml) was also collected on the same appointment and evaluated using Calbiotech salivary cotinine assay (solid phase competitive ELISA test). Cotinine levels of > 10 ng/ml were considered as positive evidence of tobacco use.

Results: It was found that prevalence of tobacco use was 10.5% in the study group. However, an alarming 88% of these adolescents had cotinine levels between 7-10ng/ml which suggest that this group may have been exposed to passive smoking.

Conclusion: A significant proportion of the study group are active tobacco users however an alarming percentage have a significantly high level of possibly passively inhaled environmental tobacco smoke exposure.