Long-term, postsurgical results on teeth with periapical radiolucencies.

Reported high failure rates of endodontic surgical procedures seemed to be inconsistent with the clinical impression of a high success rate. A retrospective study of endodontic surgical cases treated longer than 10 yr ago was done to look at long-term results. Forty-one teeth in 39 patients were able to be evaluated. These teeth had either an apicoectomy, an apicoectomy with a root-end amalgam, or in two cases, a root amputation. Of the 23 teeth that had an apicoectomy, 19 (82.6%) completely healed. Of the 16 teeth that had an apicoectomy followed by a root-end amalgam, 10 (62.5%) completely healed. Surgical endodontic procedures performed before the use of magnification, newer root-end filling materials, and ultrasonics, still had a high rate of success.

Effectiveness and costs of inpatient versus day hospital cocaine rehabilitation.

We compared the effectiveness and costs of day hospital (DH) versus inpatient (INP) rehabilitation for cocaine dependence. The research subjects were 111 inner city, lower socioeconomic, primarily African-American male veterans who qualified for a diagnosis of cocaine dependence and presented no acute medical or psychiatric conditions requiring inpatient treatment. Fifty-six men were randomly assigned to 1 month of DH rehabilitation (27 hours of weekday treatment weekly), and 55 were assigned to 1-month INP rehabilitation (48 hours of scheduled treatment weekly). Treatment outcome was evaluated 7 months after admission into treatment (92% of the subjects), and a cost analysis was performed. A significantly greater proportion of INP subjects (89.1%) completed treatment than did DH subjects (53.6%). Significant improvements in substance use, psychosocial functioning, and health status were found 7 months postadmission for both groups, but there was little evidence of differential improvement between groups. Urine toxicology findings were consistent with the self-report data in showing improvement from baseline, but no group differences in cocaine use. The groups did not differ significantly in post-rehabilitation aftercare participation or in relapse to additional treatment. DH treatment costs were 40% to 60% of INP treatment costs, depending upon the measure used.

The radicular lingual groove: an overlooked differential diagnosis.

A periodontal abscess with symptoms simulating an endodontic problem is discussed. The diffculty of diagnosis, compounded by the apparent failure of endodontic treatment on an adjacent tooth, is described. This case history illustrates the importance of awareness of developmental defects in teeth and the potential problems that they pose.