Dental disease in the late Medieval population from Nova Raca, Croatia.

Male and female dental disease frequencies were compared to test the hypothesis of differential stress levels between the sexes in the late Medieval population from Nova Raca, Croatia. The following categories of dental disease were compared: alveolar bone pathology defined by the presence of periodontal or periapical abscesses or antemortem tooth loss, caries, hypoplastic defects in the enamel and occlusal surface wear. The results show clear gender differences in the frequencies of alveolar bone pathology, carious lesions and occlusal surface wear. In all cases males exhibited significantly greater frequencies. Further analyses indicated that these differences were related to younger (15-29 years) adults and to the upper jaw. Together with paleodemographic data and the fact that females exhibited higher frequencies of enamel defects, this dichotomy in dental disease frequencies is interpreted as the result of a culturally imposed defensive mechanism which selectively buffered young males from malnutrition, exposing them at the same time to higher levels of cariogenic food and thus to higher frequencies of carious lesions and alveolar bone disease.

Hereditary orthodontic anomalies and idiopathic scoliosis.

Our study of 202 patients aged from 7 to 17 years treated for idiopathic scoliosis, and with a Cobb angle from 20 degrees to 50 degrees, showed a higher frequency of hereditary orthodontic anomalies than those in the control group. There was unmistakable evidence that acquired orthodontic anomalies occurred in both groups at the same rate of frequency. Our study demonstrated unequivocally that the detection of hereditary orthodontic anomalies in young children allows the identification of a group of children who have a high risk of developing scoliosis in later years.

[Role of psychologic factors in dental practice with siblings]. / Znacenje psiholoskih faktora u stomatoloskom radu u djece iste obitelji.

Results of a study of psychologic environmental factors and their effects on siblings in terms of fear from dental interventions are presented. Thirty pairs of siblings aged 6-15 years, treated at the Zagreb University Institute of Pediatric and Preventive Dental Medicine in Zagreb, were included in the study. The main criterion for inclusion in the study was the fact that one child accepted the treatment without reluctance, while the other child from the same family refused it or accepted it with considerable difficulties. According to this criterion, a cooperative group and a non-cooperative group of children were formed. The study was performed using a poll taken by means of a special questionnaire containing 22 questions. Results showed the psychologic environmental factors to have a marked but not most important role in the genesis of fear from dental interventions in children. Each child revealed himself/herself to be a person of his/her own, whereas environment, i.e. upbringing and education, was found to induce specific reactions in each of them. Therefore, care must be taken by a dental doctor-pedodontist to approach each little patient individually, fully respecting his/her personality.

[Dysostosis cleidocranialis--a case report]. / Dysostosis cleidocranialis--prikaz slucaja.

An 18-year female patient with dysostosis cleidocranialis, treated for dental anomalies characteristic of her basic disease since the age of 12, is described. Delayed resorption of deciduous teeth and eruption of permanent teeth were recorded. At the age of 12, the patient had still had all deciduous teeth, with the exception of lower incisors and right upper mesial incisor. The presence of 11 succedaneous teeth, 7 in the maxilla and 4 in the mandible, had been recorded by X-ray. The treatment performed step by step is presented. Firstly, deciduous teeth were extracted, and a prosthesis for both the maxilla and mandible were constructed to stimulate eruption of permanent teeth. All supernumerary teeth from the jaws were also surgically removed. After the permanent tooth eruption had been accomplished, orthodontic treatment of these teeth was required and it has still been successfully performed. Thus, a conclusion is made that the treatment of dental anomalies should start at the time of normally expected deciduous tooth exfoliation.

[Fetal alcohol syndrome--case report]. / Fetalni alkoholni sindrom--prkaz slucaja.

Clinical picture of the fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) is described by the example of three girls aged 9, 11 and 11 years. Besides mild to moderate mental retardation, all the three girls had a number of physical anomalies characteristic of FAS. Inheritance as the possible cause of these defects was ruled out by genetic testing. Low birth weight, delay in the postnatal growth and development, microcephaly, hypertelorism, malformed and low-positioned auricles, as well as skeletal alterations, were observed in the three girls. In two of them, epicanthus, strabismus, microphtalmia, gothic palate, crossbite and arachnodactyly were also found. Progenia, cleft palate, aplasia of the uvula, wide root of the nose, saddle nose, enamel hypoplasia, dermatoglyphic alterations, and cutaneous syndactyly and clinodactyly of the fifth finger were recorded in single cases each. One girl suffered from epilepsy. The orofacial region is especially affected in children with FAS, which necessitates specific dental care. Due to decreased intellectual abilities of such children, their treatment is particularly difficult and requires specific approach and methods of work.

[Clinical and histological examination of young permanent teeth after vital amputation of the pulp]. / Klinicka i histoloska ispitivanja mladih trajnih zubi nakon vitalne amputacije pulpe.

Nowadays the vital pulpotomy is applied as the most biological therapy method in the therapy of complicated fractures of young permanent teeth. When the process of apexogenesis and apexification is completed, the extirpation of the radicular pulp is recommended, as there are doubts that degenerative and pathological changes might have occurred in the very pulp. The aim of this research was to histologically analyse the pulp of such teeth. To this purpose thirteen samples of human pulp, which were extirpated from clinically healthy teeth, were analysed; these teeth were successfully treated by means of vital amputation. The results showed that within these pulps there were no changes such as inflamed cells, calcification, changes in the number of cells and in the amount of collagen fibres, to a much greater extent than what would be found in intact teeth or in teeth treated conservatively. From the above we can draw conclusions, as well as use it as guidance in practical work: in cases of successful therapy of fractured young permanent teeth the vital extirpation of the pulp as preventive measure is not justified. Such a tooth has to be watched clinically and radiographically throughout a longer period of time.

Oxytalan fibres in human dental pulp.

Scarce and randomly oriented oxytalan fibres are present in the connective tissue of dental pulp in both deciduous and permanent teeth.