Prevalence of taurodontism in primary mandibular first molars of ethnic Indian children.

The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of taurodontism in primary mandibular first molars in ethnic Indian children using periapical radiographs. Periapical radiographs of 274 children obtained from December 2008 to August 2010 were retrospectively screened and examined. Radiographs of 196 patients (99 boys and 97 girls; ages 2.5-10.5) with bilateral primary mandibular first molars were randomly selected and evaluated. The gender, symmetry, and frequencies of occurrence of taurodont primary mandibular first molars were compared and the obtained data were statistically analyzed using the x2 test. Eight (4.08%) taurodont primary mandibular first molars were found with a bilateral incidence of a symmetrical distribution of 38% (3/8). The prevalence of taurodontism in primary mandibular first molars did not differ significantly between right and left sides or with gender (P ≥ 0.05). The results of the present study indicate that approximately 4% of Indian children had taurodontism in primary mandibular first molars. Clinicians should be aware of the prevalence of this anatomic variant in primary mandibular first molars among the Indian population for early identification of taurodonts and for rendering the best care during dental treatment.

Eruption cyst: a literature review and four case reports.

Eruption cyst is a benign cyst associated with a primary or permanent tooth in its soft tissue phase after erupting through the bone. It is most prevalent in the Caucasian race. Intraoral examination of four patients revealed eruption cyst. Among these, in three patients it occurred in the maxillary arch and one had it in the mandibular arch. All were associated with permanent tooth. Surgical treatment was done in three cases and in one case the cyst disappeared gradually and tooth erupted in normal pattern. Four cases of eruption cyst from India are presented and literature on this condition is reviewed. It is clinically significant in that knowledge among general dentists is very essential regarding this developmental disturbance to reach the correct diagnosis and to provide proper treatment.

Inflammatory dentigerous cyst associated with an endodontically treated primary second molar: a case report

Primary teeth with periapical inflammation induced by dental caries are treated through pulp therapy. Thus in pediatric dentistry, pulpectomy is considered the most common and successful treatment procedure for primary teeth with periapical inflammation. Dentigerous cyst is an epithelial lined cavity that develops from the reduced enamel epithelium related to the crown of an unerupted tooth. This report describes a case of an inflammatory dentigerous cyst associated with an endodontically treated primary second molar in a 12-year-old female patient with mixed dentition. The relation between endodontic treatment and development of dentigerous cyst is discussed.

Efficacy of platelet-rich-plasma (PRP) in bone regeneration after cyst enucleation in pediatric patients--a clinical study.

BACKGROUND: Platelet-rich-plasma (PRP) is a type of natural source of autologous growth factors, and has been used successfully in various fields. However the use ofPRP in children is not well documented. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy of adding PRP to a bone graft in the bone regeneration of cystic bony defects following cystectomy. STUDY DESIGN: Study sample included 20 children who were randomly divided into two groups with 10 patients in each group; all underwent cystectomy In the first group (test group), after cystectomy the cystic defect was filled with PRP and bone graft. In the second group (control group) bone graft alone (without PRP) was used. Radiographs were recorded at 1 month, 2 months, 4 months and 6 months intervals after surgery to evaluate the defect bone fill in both groups. RESULTS: The post-operative successive radiographs in the test group showed a significantly greater regeneration of bone in the height of bony defects with application of PRP to bone graft as compared to the control group. In the test group, by the first post operative month, about 58% of the defect was filled, which gradually increased in each month and showed about 94% of defect-fill by 6 months. In the control group, similar observation revealed only 31% of defect-fill by the first post-operative month and a 47% defect-fill at 6 months. CONCLUSION: The addition of PRP to bone graft appeared to enhance bone regeneration considerably. The combination of PRP and bone graft might have a potential for routine clinical use for regeneration of cystic bony defects in children.

Plasmodium falciparum: genetic polymorphism in apical membrane antigen-1 gene from Indian isolates.

A number of stage-specific antigens have been characterized for vaccine development against Plasmodium falciparum malaria. This study presents a comprehensive analysis of the sequence polymorphism in Plasmodium falciparum apical membrane antigen-1 (PfAMA-1) in population samples from the eastern and western parts of India. This is the first study of its kind for the nearly full length PfAMA-1 gene from these regions in India. Our observations confirmed that sequence diversity of PfAMA-1 confines only to point mutations and shows 4-8% variation as compared to the prototypes. As opposed to the previous studies on PfAMA-1, our study revealed a greater degree of polymorphism in the Domain II region of PfAMA-1 protein, though signature for diversifying selection is seen throughout the gene. Our present investigation also indicates a very high degree of variation in the reported T- and B-cell epitopes of PfAMA-1. Few noteworthy and unique observations made in this study are the substitution of Cysteine residues responsible for the disulfide bond structure of the protein and the presence of premature termination after 595 amino acids in 3 of the 13 isolates under consideration. These crucial findings add new perspectives to the future of AMA-1 research and could have major implications in establishing AMA-1 as a vaccine candidate.