Hematologic status in patients with recurrent aphthous stomatitis in Jordan

To determine the prevalence of hematinic deficiencies in patients with recurrent aphthous stomatitis. The study took place in the Oral Medicine Clinic of the Jordan University Hospital in Amman, Jordan, between January 1993 and December 2000. We studied the hemoglobin, serum ferritin, vitamin B12 and folate levels in 143 patients with recurrent aphthous stomatitis. We compared the results with a control group of 143 age-and gender-matched patients with a range of other oral diseases. In recurrent aphthous stomatitis patients, 14% were anemic and 37.8% showed hematinic deficiencies; 16.8% showed low serum ferritin; 26.6% showed low serum vitamin B12 and 4.9% showed low serum folate. In the control group, 10.5% were anemic and 18.2% showed hematinic deficiencies; 9.8% showed low serum ferritin; 12.6% showed low serum vitamin B12 and none showed serum folate deficiency. Patients with recurrent aphthous stomatitis have more hematinic deficiencies, particularly vitamin B12 deficiency, compared with controls. Correction of these hematinic deficiencies could help in the management of the disease.

Health hazards of tobacco smoking: an alarming lack of public awareness

This paper assesses public awareness and knowledge of smoking-associated oral and general health hazards. A face- to-face interview with a randomly selected sample of 524 patients of those attending the four main health care centers in Amman, Jordan was used to collect the data. Virtually all respondents [97.9%] were aware that smoking has negative effects on general health and the majority [87.4%] related lung cancer to smoking. It was found that non-smokers were significantly more likely to believe in this than current smokers. About one third of respondents to this survey were unaware of the link between smoking, heart and chronic pulmonary diseases and around two thirds were unaware of the link with hypertension, stroke and other cancers. There was an 83.2% awareness of the link between smoking and staining of teeth but there were serious deficits in awareness of the role of smoking in gingival disease, calculus formation, caries, oral infections and loss of teeth. Almost one third of the patients did not know that smoking is the most important aetiological factor of oral cancer. There is a clear need to inform and educate the Jordanian public on matters related to the known health hazards of tobacco consumption and dentists should be involved in smoking cessation strategies

Medical status of patients attending the oral diagnostic clinic at the university of Jordan

Medical status of 1546 subjects attending the oral diagnostic clinic at the dental school of the University of Jordan was examined by a structured verbal interview by the author. Significant medical histories and/or current drug therapies of relevance to the practice of dentistry were found in 21.9% and 10.1%, respectively. Medical problems identified included hypertension [6%], drug allergies [5%], diabetes mellitus [3.6%], arthritis [2.4%], heart disease [1.7%], peptic ulcer [1.3%], bronchial asthma [1.2%], neurological, disease [0.6%], thyroid disease [0.4%] and blood disorder [0.2%]. The prevalence of significant medical histories increased with increasing age and in many categories the number of females was greater than males

case report of Wegener's granulomatosis with early oral manifestation.

Wegener's granulomatosis is a disease with high mortality if left untreated. Early diagnosis and the initiation of proper treatment is of great importance. A 25-year old male patient presented with gingival hyperplasia as the initial presenting lesion of Wegener's Granulomatosis. This was followed shortly by nasal obstruction and epistaxis. Delay in histological interpretation resulted in progression of the disease into severe systemic vasculitis. Treatment with prednisolone resulted in rapid and dramatic resolution of oral and systemic manifestations. The role of the oral specialist in early diagnosis of systemic diseases with oral manifestations should be emphasized