An objective method of assessing facial swelling in patients with dental abscesses treated with clarithromycin.

AIM: The study evaluates the efficacy of a set of objective parameters for monitoring facial swelling in a group of patients treated with clarithromycin. METHODS: Fifty consecutive patients suffering from dental abscesses (22 in the maxillary arch and 28 in the mandibular arch) were enrolled. All these patients underwent antibiotic treatment with clarithromycin in a new formulation as a single daily dose (500 mg/day for 6 days). Pain and changes in facial swelling were evaluated at baseline and each day for 6 days through subjective parameters (visual analogic scale, VAS) and objective parameters (6 different tape measurements on the skin surface above the abscess). RESULTS: Pain and swelling recorded by patient and dentist (using VAS scores) showed statistically significant decreases (p<0.01) on days 2, 3 and 4, while no further significant variation was observed during days 4, 5 or 6. As regards the objective parameters to quantify facial swelling, the maximum dimensional change (from baseline to final values) in the mandibular arch was obtained with measurement 6 (mean value 2.27+/-0.53 cm); the maximum dimensional change in the maxillary arch was obtained with the sum of the other 5 measurements (mean value 6.34+/-4.09 cm). CONCLUSION: The use of a single or a combination of linear measurements might provide a sensitive and reproducible method to evaluate facial swelling objectively and could be very useful in monitoring the efficacy of new antibiotics and to compare the results from different studies.

Treatment of cervical dentin hypersensitivity with resin adhesives: 4-week evaluation.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the effectiveness of a dentin bonding agent containing HEMA compared to a resin emulsion in the reduction of cervical dentin hypersensitivity (CDH). MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was a randomized-within-subject, double blind design. Twenty patients who were suffering from CDH from at least two teeth (canines and/or premolars) were enrolled. The subjective perceptions of pain in response to tactile, air blasts and cold ethyl chloride stimuli were evaluated using a visual analog scale (VAS) at baseline and 10 minutes, 1 week and 4 weeks after the treatments. Scotchbond 1 (a dentin bonding agent similar to Single Bond in the USA) and MS Coat (a resin emulsion), both applied according to the manufacturers' directions, were selected for the study. RESULTS: Multiple regression ANOVA for repeated measures showed that both treatments significantly reduced the CDS with respect the baseline values after just 10 minutes. There were no significant differences between the ability of the two treatments to reduce CDH for each of the three evaluation stimuli or for subjective evaluation.