Intraosseous anesthesia using a computer-controlled system during non-surgical periodontal therapy (root planing): Two case reports

Local anesthesia is administered to control pain, but it may induce fear and anxiety. Root planing is a non-surgical periodontal therapy; however, when it is performed in an extensive manner, some tissue removal is inevitable. Notably, this removal may be so painful that local anesthesia is required to be administered to the area scheduled for the treatment. Although patients tend to accept root planing easily, they frequently express a fear of local anesthesia. Intraosseous anesthesia (IA) is an intraosseous injection technique, whereby local anesthetic is injected into the cancellous bone supporting the teeth. A computer-controlled IA system (CIAS) exhibits multiple benefits, such as less painful anesthesia, reduced soft tissue numbness, and the provision of palatal or lingual, as well as buccal, anesthesia via single needle penetration. In this report, we present two cases of root planing that were performed under local anesthesia, using a CIAS.

A Novel Method to Study the Effects of Cyclosporine on Gingival Overgrowth in Children / 대한소아치과학회지

Previous studies to elucidate the etiology of cyclosporine(Cs)-induced gingival overgrowth in children have not completely excluded all factors that may cause differences among individuals. This study examined the effect of cyclosporine on the metabolism of type 1 collagen(CoL-I) in experimental models that controlled the effects of biological variations on individuals. Five 5-week-old male Sprague-Dawley rats were administered Cs by gastric feeding for 6 weeks. Gingival specimens were harvested from the mandibular posterior area before beginning Cs administration and at 2, 4, and 6 weeks thereafter. Gingival fibroblasts were cultured from all the 20 biopsies collected from the gingiva. Half of the fibroblasts collected prior to the Cs administration were designated as Control. The other half of the fibroblasts were treated with Cs in vitro and called in vitro test group(Tt). The fibroblasts collected 2, 4, and 6 weeks after the Cs administration were called in vivo test groups : T2, T4, T6, respectively. Immunofluorescence microscopy was used to detect CoL-I in all the fibroblasts. CoL-I was analyzed at both the gene and protein expression levels by real-time polymerase chain reaction and western blotting. Changes in CoL-I before and after Cs treatment were evaluated from the gingiva of each rat. There was no significant difference in gene expression of CoL-I in the control and test groups. CoL-I protein expression levels of fibroblasts increased in in vitro Cs treatment for each individual, and also increased in in vivo Cs treatment. In this study, the experimental method that control biological variations that can occur due to differences among individuals was useful. Subsequent studies on other factors besides CoL-I and in-depth studies in humans are needed.

Evaluation of the Reliability of Salivary Testing Instrument / 대한소아치과학회지

A salivary testing instrument has an advantage that the method is simple and can be performed in a short time. However, it is necessary to verify the factors that affect the reliability of the result, because the device is easy to use and even saliva collection is simple. The aim of this study was to compare the difference of the test results according to the measurement time in order to analyze the time factor of the external variable among the factors that may affect the measurement results of the salivary testing instrument. The relationship between the measured values of the salivary testing instrument to identify the internal variables was analyzed. Saliva was collected from 20 randomly selected patients regardless of age, sex, or diseases. The mean age was 46.6 years, 10 males and 10 females. The saliva collected was directly measured with the salivary testing instrument as group I. The saliva samples were placed in air in a paper cup for 10 minutes, and then measured as group III. Then group I was remeasured after 30 minutes and assigned as group II. Group III was remeasured after 30 minutes and called as group IV. As a result, all of the cariogenic bacteria, acidity, buffer capacity, blood, leukocyte, protein and ammonia, except buffer capacity, showed statistically significant changes in group II and IV. This means that the reliability of the test results is poor if the measurement time is not observed. Cariogenic bacteria were correlated with leukocyte and protein, buffer capacity was related to acidity, protein, and protein was related to buffer capacity and leukocyte. In conclusion, the result according to the measurement time as the external variable was different, which means that time must be strictly monitored when testing saliva. It is also necessary to take into account the relevance of the correlations between the internal variables and the clinical data.