A rare case of Nonsyndromic Oligodontia with Ankyloglossia

@# Agenesis of teeth and ankyloglossia are common human developmental anomalies. Terms like Oligodontia, Anodontia and Hypodontia are used to describe agenesis of teeth. Oligodontia is a rare condition generally defined as agenesis of six or more teeth excluding the third molars. The condition is not frequently documented in Indian children. There is no much documentation on oligodontia with ankylogossia. Ankyloglossia can adversely affect the development of the surrounding structures including the alveolar process, teeth and can impair functions such as mastication, speech, and swallowing. The present article reports a rare case of non-syndromic oligodontia associated with ankyloglossia in an 8-year old male patient. Oligodontia is a relatively rare condition affecting 0.1-0.2% of the population. Our present case is even rare because of its association with ankyloglossia

Trauma induced calcification - an enigma

@#Pulp chamber is considered as a very important and integral part of the tooth. Pulp chamber undergoes different types of morphological and pathological alterations. Calcified canals are one amongst other pathological alterations. Calcified root canals have been a challenge to the diagnostician and the dental physician before diagnosis and after diagnosis respectively. It is considered that the impact of an irritant to the tooth, like trauma, caries, infection and age changes can precipitate calcification. Calcification makes a dentist to negotiate with his treatment planning and at times it can be a surprise element.

Micronucleus assay- an early diagnostic tool to assess genotoxic changes in tobacco and related habits

Objective: Micronuclei are induced in cells by a variety of substances, like UV radiation, infrared rays, X-radiations, and chemicals. Among them tobacco- specific nitrosamines have been reported to be potent mutagenic agents which are thought to be responsible for the induction of chromosomal aberrations resulting in production of micronuclei. The main aim of our study is to compare MN frequency among subjects, chewing tobacco only, chewing and smoking tobacco only, and chewing, smoking with alcohol, and to co-relate with control subjects

Methods: Healthy subjects are included in the study and divided into four groups having 20 subjects in each group. Group-I is chewing only, group-II chewing and smoking, group-III chewing and smoking with alcohol, group-IV control. Smears were made from buccal exfoliated cells and stained with DNA specific stain Acridine orange. Frequency on MNC per 100 cells was assessed with, one way ANOVA and Tukey HSD Multiple Comparisons test with p<0.05

Results: The mean number of MN was 2.3, 2.4, 3.6 in the group of chewing only, chewing and smoking, chewing, smoking and alcohol respectively. While assessing MN in the controls, out of 20 cases, 19 showed no MN among the cells examined while 1 patient showed 1 MN each per 100 cells examined

Conclusion: The present study concludes that MN is a better surrogate biomarker to predict genotoxicity for tobacco related habits