ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: Musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) result in discomfort, pain and illness that can result in disruption or impairment of dental practice. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study consisting of 60 dentists was carried out to determine musculoskeletal work related pain in major cities of Northern India. The study was planned in two phases. In the first phase, the subjects were given questionnaire related to the musculoskeletal pain happened over the last twelve months. In the second phase of study, improvement was carried out by recommending the subjects to implement ergonomics at their workplace. After three months subjects were again approached and given questionnaire about the musculoskeletal disorders. DMAIC (define, measure, analyse, improve and control) methodology of six sigma strategy was used to access the MSDs. Chi-square test was used for the analysis and a p-value of less than or equal to 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of musculoskeletal problems in the present study was found to be 68.3%. After three months only 23 respondents applied ergonomics at their work place, prevalence of pain was reduced in neck from 47.8% to 21.7% out of total 23 respondents, shoulder pain 39.1% to 17.3%, pain in elbows from 26% to 21.7%, as well as in other locomotor organs. The p-value was significant with p <0.05. CONCLUSION: MSD represents a major occupational health issue for dentists in India as well as worldwide and result revealed necessitates the need of workshops to create awareness of ergonomics as effective measures for reducing MSD among dentists.
ABSTRACT
AIM: To estimate fluoride concentration in drinking water, cow's milk and buffalo's milk and to correlate the concentration of fluoride in cow's milk and buffalo's milk with varying levels of fluoride concentration in drinking water. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Ten households having both cows and buffalo's were selected by convenience in each of the 3 zones (below optimum fluoride <0.7 ppm (parts per million), optimum fluoride 0.7-1.2 ppm and above optimum fluoride areas > 1.2 ppm). From these selected households, 200 ml of fresh milk of both cows and buffaloes was collected along with 200 ml of drinking water for estimation of fluoride concentration by using a fluoride ion selective electrode method. The data was analysed using SPSS, version 11.5 for windows. RESULTS: The mean fluoride concentration of drinking water, cow's milk and buffalo's milk in three different fluoride zones was 0.89±0.39, 0.09±0.07, 0.09±0.08 respectively. Pearson's correlation found a statistically significant correlation between fluoride concentrations in cow's and buffalo's milk with varying levels of fluoride concentration in drinking water in zone B and zone C. However, this correlation was not statistically significant in zone A. CONCLUSION: With an increase in fluoride concentration in drinking water there was an increase in concentration of fluoride in cow's and buffalo's milk. We conclude that this association is seen in conjunction to not only a single factor but rather due to culmination of several other aspects. So, there is a need to elucidate the other factors that might be contributing to this increase and dental fluorosis.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Currently, the etiology of drug-induced gingival overgrowth is not entirely understood but is clearly multifactorial. Phenytoin, one of the common drugs implicated in gingival enlargement, is metabolized mainly by cytochrome P450 (CYP)2C9 and partly by CYP2C19. The CYP2C9 and CYP2C19 genes are polymorphically expressed and most of the variants result in decreased metabolism of the respective substrates. AIMS: The present study was undertaken to investigate the influence of the CYP2C9*2 and *3 variant genotypes on phenytoin hydroxylation in subjects diagnosed with epilepsy from South India, thus establishing the genetic polymorphisms leading to its defective hydroxylation process. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fifteen epileptic subjects, age 9 to 60 years were included in the study. Among the study subjects, 8 were males and 7 were females. Genomic DNA was extracted from patients' blood using Phenol-chloroform method and genotyping was done for CYP2C9 using customized TaqMan genotyping assays on a real time thermocycler, by allelic discrimination method. The genetic polymorphisms *1, *2 and *3 on CYP2C9 were selected based on their function and respective allele frequencies in Asian subcontinent among the Asian populations. RESULTS: CYP2C9*1*2 and CYP2C9*3/*3 were identified with equal frequency in the study population. There were seven subjects with CYP2C9*1/*2 genotype (heterozygous mutant), one subject with CYP2C9*1/*1 (wild type) and seven study subjects with CYP2C9*3/*3 (homozygous mutant). CONCLUSION: The results obtained in the present study will be helpful in the medical prescription purposes of phenytoin, and a more personalized patient approach with its administration can be advocated.
ABSTRACT
Granulocytic sarcoma (GS) is a rare extramedullary malignant tumor composed of immature myeloid cells. It is strongly associated with acute myeloid leukaemia, chronic myeloproliferative diseases. Occurrence of GS in the oral cavity is extremely uncommon. Present case reported an unusual occurrence of GS without leukemia involving maxillary sinus of a child. The patient underwent chemotherapy followed by radiotherapy with complete remission. A long-term follow-up of the patient was carried without any evidence of recurrence with special focus on diagnostic difficulties. The present case highlights the perplexity in diagnosing such lesions with emphasis on the need of careful interpretation of all clinical, radiographic, histopathological and immunohistochemical details as it is one of the most frequently misdiagnosed disorder.
