Stem Cells and Their Derivatives-Implications for Alveolar Bone Regeneration: A Comprehensive Review.

Oral and craniofacial bone defects caused by congenital disease or trauma are widespread. In the case of severe alveolar bone defect, autologous bone grafting has been considered a "gold standard"; however, the procedure has several disadvantages, including limited supply, resorption, donor site morbidity, deformity, infection, and bone graft rejection. In the last few decades, bone tissue engineering combined with stem cell-based therapy may represent a possible alternative to current bone augmentation techniques. The number of studies investigating different cell-based bone tissue engineering methods to reconstruct alveolar bone damage is rapidly rising. As an interdisciplinary field, bone tissue engineering combines the use of osteogenic cells (stem cells/progenitor cells), bioactive molecules, and biocompatible scaffolds, whereas stem cells play a pivotal role. Therefore, our work highlights the osteogenic potential of various dental tissue-derived stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), the progress in differentiation techniques of iPSCs into osteoprogenitor cells, and the efforts that have been made to fabricate the most suitable and biocompatible scaffold material with osteoinductive properties for successful bone graft generation. Moreover, we discuss the application of stem cell-derived exosomes as a compelling new form of "stem-cell free" therapy.

Squamous cell carcinoma and piercing of the tongue - a case report.

Tongue piercings can be associated with local and systemic complications. Local complications occur frequently immediately after the surgery but also long-term local effects can cause problems such as speech and swallowing difficulties. Aspiration, transmission of infectious diseases, hypersensitivity reaction belong to the systemic complications. In the presented paper an unusual case of cancer development in a 26-year-old man who had a metal piercing inserted for 5 years in the right anterior third of the tongue. Despite of intense concommitant chemoradiotherapy the patient died 18 months from the first symptoms. In prevention of various complications it would be the best solution spread information about the risks of the tongue piercing especially within teenage population.