Complications following oral piercing. A study among 201 young adults in Strasbourg, France.

OBJECTIVE: This study was designed to identify and quantify the number and type of complications relating to the oral environment following piercing of tissue in the oral sphere. METHODS: The epidemiological survey included patients attending the University of Strasbourg Dental Hospital, students frequenting the University of Strasbourg canteen, and members of the public attending piercing conferences in Strasbourg, France between the months of February and June 2005. No dental examination was performed as part of this survey. RESULTS; 201 people were interviewed in this study. The average subject age was 22.7 years and 73.6% were smokers. Women comprised 72.6% of the sample population. Post-piercing complications occurred in 23.4%, but frequency depended on piercing location in relation to the oral sphere. Gingival recession occurred in 8.5%, and chipped teeth in 6.9% of the group who were aware of complications. Titanium, stainless steel and Teflon were associated with recession in 52.9%, 23.5% and 9%, and chipped teeth in 35.7%, 42.9% and 14.3% of this group respectively. CONCLUSION: The occurrence of complications was high. There is a need for public education and a further study with a dental examination.

High-resolution electron-microscopic study of the relationship between human enamel and dentin crystals at the dentinoenamel junction.

The development of dentin and of enamel share a common starting locus: the dentinoenamel junction (DEJ). In this study the relationship between enamel and dentin crystals has been investigated in order to highlight the guiding or modulating role of the previously mineralized dentin layer during enamel formation. Observations were made with a high-resolution electron microscope and, after digitalization, image-analysis software was used to obtain digital diffractograms of individual crystals. In general no direct epitaxial growth of enamel crystals onto dentin crystals could be demonstrated. The absence of direct contact between the two kinds of crystals and the presence of amorphous areas within enamel particles at the junction with dentin crystals were always noted. Only in a few cases was the relationship between enamel and dentin crystals observed, which suggested a preorganization of the enamel matrix influenced by the dentin surface structure. This could be explained either by the existence of a proteinaceous continuum between enamel and dentin or by the orientation of enamel proteins by dentin crystals.

The role of medication and sugars in pediatric dental patients.

It is now widely accepted that sugar-containing medicines are a cause of dental caries in chronically sick children. The increase of prescribed medicine intake and of self-medication in developed countries exposes a growing number of children to medication caries, which can be considered a public health problem. Health workers should first of all be informed. The second step consists of involving each country's institutional structures in charge of public health to ensure that they modify the legislation on medicine manufacture and sale, following the exemplary action of Great Britain. The third step is to pressurize manufacturers so that they decide to produce all liquid pediatric medicine in sugared and nonsugared forms. This step can be accomplished only if prescribers preferentially prescribe sugar free medicines and promote sugar free medicines to their patients.

Clinical and ultrastructural study of the natal tooth: enamel and dentin assessments.

A natal tooth, the lower left central primary incisor, extracted from a twenty-eight-day-old boy was the subject of a clinical and ultrastructural (S.E.M., T.E.M., H.R.T.E.M.) study. The right one having been lost shortly after birth, the places of the natal teeth were taken by two hyperplastic structures which disappeared one year later, ejecting two little pearls of hard tissue. Scanning electron microscopic investigation of the extracted natal tooth showed a reduced enamel thickness corresponding to the development stage of the tooth as well as the absence of Hunter-Schreger bands and of an outer prism-free layer probably related with amelogenesis perturbations. Transmission electron microscopy disclosed characteristic ultrastructure of the enamel rods, the morphology of the enamel crystals evaluated by their width-to-thickness ratio taking logically place between fetal and adult enamel. A central dark line, which is thought to be in relation to the initial growth process, was observed in enamel crystals. Dentin aspects did not reveal significant perturbations compared to normal primary teeth.

[Dental delay and microdontia in children with somatotropin hormone deficiency]. / Retard dentaire et microdontie chez l'enfant atteint de déficit en hormone somatotrope.

The clinical effects of growth hormone deficiency on dental development were studied in 27 young people aged 3.5-17.5 years, suffering from pituitary dwarfism. They presented with either a late selective eruption of premolars whose roots appeared normal or partial eruption of the whole permanent dentition. Premolar crowns were statistically significantly smaller while the other teeth were of normal size. The hormonal deficiency produced a decrease in the level of circulating growth factors and especially of EGF which may explain the anomalies of eruption and dental morphogenesis.

[Oral evaluation in various pathological conditions in children]. / Bilan bucco-dentaire dans diverses situations pathologiques chez l'enfant.

The current knowledge concerning the study of dental cavities cannot account for all clinical aspects of some subjects' resistance to cavity formation. This work concerned, in a first stage, the study of dental anomalies (number, shape and structure), in different groups of children with common diseases. This study has enabled us to evaluate the caries index of the same groups of children. It concerns 13 children with somatotropin deficiency (including 36% of children without any caries), 18 children with chronic renal insufficiency (including 56% of children without any caries), 4 children with Down's syndrome (no caries), one female child with erythropoietic porphyria (no caries), one girl with Incontinentia pigmenti (no caries) and one girl with familial, hypophosphatemic vitamin-resistant rickets (no caries). The percentage of children without any caries is particularly high in the groups under study, in spite of a poor oral hygiene. It seems that such factors as the conditions of dental development, the structure and morphology of the teeth or its environment, are capable of having an effect on caries formation.