Oral cancer - are the dentists doing enough for its prevention and early diagnosis? - a study

The aim of this study was to determine whether and to what extent the dental profession is helping in the prevention and early diagnosis of oral cancers. Data were collected by distributing self administered questionnaires among two hundred randomly selected dentists of Rawalpindi and Islamabad to know what role they play in the prevention and early diagnosis of this deadly disease. More than half [52%] of the dentists did not ask or asked rarely about the use of tobacco, alcohol and other risk factors and only about a third [34%] advised and helped their patients to quit these habits. Only 22% of the dentists regularly examined the entire oral mucosa of all their patients and even fewer [12%] considered the possibility and then searched for a coincidental oral cancer. Only about 06% took biopsies of suspicious lesions regularly. The findings of this study indicate that the dentists of this region need to do a lot more for the prevention and early diagnosis of oral cancer

Frequency of hepatitis b and c in oral and maxilofacial surgery patients at Armed Forces Institute of Dentistry

To see the frequency of hepatitis B virus [HBV] and hepatitis C virus [HCV] carriers in oral and maxillofacial surgical patients. Descriptive study. This study was carried out at Oral and Maxillofacial surgery department of Armed Forces Institute of Dentistry [AFID], Rawalpindi from June 2006 to July 2007. Patients who were admitted at Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Department during the study period for any kind of maxillofacial surgery were screened before operation for HBV, and HCV. A total of 842 patients were screened. Eighty percent were males and 20% were females with age ranging from 5-70 years. HBV was positive in 7% patients and HCV was positive in 9% of patients. The high frequency of HBV and HCV in maxillofacial surgical patients suggests a routine screening for HBsAg and anti-HCV for all patients prior to surgery