Anaemia of chronic disease (ACD) is caused due to an underlying chronic inflammatory process. It is not due to marrow deficiency of iron. Chronic periodontitis is a chronic inflammatory condition which has been associated with anaemia of chronic disease. The aim of this study is to estimate various hematologic parameters suggestive of ACD in patients with chronic periodontitis and in the process to establish a relation between the two. Forty patients were selected and were categorized, based on the presence and absence of chronic periodontitis, into case and control groups, with 20 subjects in each group. Hematologic evaluation was done. Complete haemogram, haematocrit, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and estimation of serum ferritin were done. An independent t-test was calculated. Statistically significant values (p<0.05) were obtained for neutrophil count, ESR, red blood cells (RBC), mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration (MCHC) and serum ferritin. ESR, RBC and serum ferritin levels were significantly increased in subjects with chronic periodontitis. There were significant differences in neutrophil, ESR, RBC and serum ferritin in subjects having severe form of generalized chronic periodontitis. Thus, it was concluded that chronic generalized periodontitis, by means of an inflammatory process, influences various hematologic parameters are suggestive of anaemia of chronic disease.
Chronic Periodontitis ; Periodontitis

Surgical removal of impacted lower wisdom tooth has become increasingly costly to patient while still remains as the most common dental surgical procedure that is performed on outpatient basis. In the present study, a total of 23 patients with impacted lower wisdom tooth were surgically removed under local anaesthesia by using different irrigating solution namely, normal saline, distilled water and chlorhexidine. The samples underwent standard operating procedures and medication. Post operative complications in terms of pain, swelling, infection and delayed wound healing were assessed and compared on Day 1 and Day 7 after surgery. The result of this study showed that there is no significant difference between the three irrigating solution used in surgical removal of impacted lower wisdom tooth in terms of postoperative complication. A bigger scale of research with more samples is recommended to evaluate the most efficacy irrigating solution during surgical removal of impacted lower wisdom tooth.

Perivitelline fluid (PVF) of the horseshoe crab embryo has been reported to possess an important role during embryogenesis by promoting cell proliferation. This study aims to evaluate the effect of PVF on the expression of cell cycle regulatory genes from human dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) between different cell passages viz. 4, 5, 6. The cells were treated with a single dose of PVF (26.89 mg/ml) PVF. Gene expression was quantified for CDKNA2A, PTEN, MDM2 and TP53 genes using reverse transcriptase PCR. CDKN2A and MDM2 expression for treated and untreated DPSCs, expressed a similar pattern of expression. The higher expression of CDKN2A showed that the treatment increased cell proliferation and prevented cell senescence. DPSCs with PVF treatment showed increased expression of MDM2 at passage 4 and drastically declined expression at passage 5 and slightly increased at passage 6. TP53 expression of DPSCs treated group showed a higher expression compared to untreated group. On the other hand, the expression of PTEN in DPSCs treated group started to increase from passage 5 to 6. However, on the whole, the PTEN expression was higher than the untreated group in all the passages studied here. The results showed that PVF could enhance cell cycle regulatory gene expression in DPSCs as indicated by the higher expression of all the genes considered in this study at different cell passages in the treated group compared to the untreated group. Mann Whitney test was utilized to determine the significance of cell cycle regulatory genes expression between treated and untreated group. Significant difference in expression of genes between the treated and untreated groups were found at all passages except for CDKN2A gene whereby, its expression was not significantly different at passage 5 though it did express slightly higher in PVF treated DPSCs.

The unilateral nasal symptom should trigger a treating physician to a certain diagnosis. The differential diagnosis includes foreign body, rhinolith and tumour. The chronicity of symptom helps a lot with the diagnosis. Foreign body for example, tends to present with positive history of insertion, mainly by children or the acute symptom of local infection. In the presence of prolonged symptom, rhinolith should be suspected especially when the patient presents with pathognomonic nasal obstruction with foul smelly discharge. A referral should be made for a nasoendoscopy evaluation whenever a rhinitis-like symptoms remain after a period of medical treatment for allergy. We share a case of a missed diagnosis of a rhinolith after six years of symptoms. Keywords: nose; obstruction; rhinolith; unilateral

A study was done to assess and compare the levels of infection control practices amongst Year 3, 4 and 5 undergraduate dental students at the Faculty of Dentistry, University of Malaya, Malaysia. This study also compared the levels of infection control practices between the operators and the assistants performing a similar task. A checklist was designed based on the Infection Control Guidelines published by the Faculty of Dentistry. The audit checklist criteria were specific to the operators and assistants or common to both. 10 pairs of students (operators and assistants) were randomly selected from Polyclinics A, B and C, representing Year 3, 4 and 5 students respectively (n=60). The subjects were audited as soon as they entered the clinic, during treatment and up until they exited the polyclinic. The data collected were analysed using SPSS and Rasch model. Year 3 students performed better infection control practices (1.43 logit) followed by Year 5 (0.96 logit) and Year 4 (0.94 logit) students. The operators in Year 5 and the assistants in Year 3 and 4 were more compliant to infection control practices. 100% of students complied with removal of gown before leaving the clinic. However, only 1.7% of dental students wore protective goggles or face shield during treatment and disinfected prostheses before and after inserting into patient’s mouth. Introduction and reinforcement of infection control practices should be incorporated at the beginning of each academic year for all students to allow for better practice and delivery of treatment to patients.
Students, Dental

Primary intra-osseous squamous cell carcinoma (PIOSCC) is a rare tumour which occurs centrally within the jaws. It is believed to arise from odontogenic epithelial remnants or from pre-existing odontogenic cysts/tumours. A case of PIOSCC arising from an odontogenic cyst in a 57-year-old female is discussed. Initial clinical and radiographic examination was suggestive of an odontogenic cyst / cystic tumour. The lesion was enucleated and sent for diagnostic histopathology which revealed the presence of an invasive carcinoma arising from the walls of the odontogenic cyst. The patient then underwent right mandibular resection and reconstruction as well as right supra-omohyoid neck dissection. Long standing odontogenic cysts have the potential to undergo malignant transformation though this may not always be the case. Relying only on radiographic findings for the management of cyst-like lesions without obtaining histopathological diagnosis is extremely ill-advised.
Carcinoma, Squamous Cell

This in-vitro study aimed to evaluate and compare the marginal leakage and penetration ability of a moisture-tolerant (Embrace WetBondTM) and a conventional (ClinproTM) resin-based sealants under three different enamel surface preparations (acid etched, acid etched and saliva contaminated and bur preparation and acid etched). One hundred and twenty extracted caries free human premolars teeth were cleaned and randomly divided into six groups of equal numbers, according to the type of sealants used and surface preparations. All the sealed teeth were subjected to thermocycling and immersed in a methylene blue dye. Each tooth was then embedded into acrylic resin before it was sectioned into four sections per tooth. Marginal leakage and unfilled surface area (indicating penetration depth of resin) were then measured using an optical 3D measurement device (Alicona Infinite Focus®). Both sealants exhibited comparable proportion of marginal leakage on acid etched only surfaces. Moisture-tolerant sealant showed the least proportion of marginal leakage on bur prepared and etched surfaces. Presence of saliva has detrimental effect on adhesion of both sealants. Nevertheless, depth of penetration of sealant into the fissures is comparable with both sealant types irrespective of the surface preparations.
Pit and Fissure Sealants ; Dental Caries ; Dental Materials

Euphorbia tirucalli Linn. is traditionally used as medicine especially in the treatment of diseases caused by bacterial pathogens. The objectives of the present study were to identify the bioactive compounds in the stem of Euphorbia tirucalli Linn. using the gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GCMS) analysis, and to investigate their potentials as an alternative for antimicrobial activity. Two-microliters of dried powdered of Euphorbia tirucalli Linn. stem were mixed with methanol followed by injection into splitless mode of GC-MS. Separation was achieved by Elite-5MS fused capillary column. The mass spectra were compared with the spectra of known components stored in the NIST and WILEY databases for compound identification. Forty-six chemical constituents were identified. The major constituents were lanosta-8,24-dien-3-ol, (3β)- (13.60%), (23S)-ethylcholest-5-en-(3β)-ol (7.02%), linoleic acid (2.96%) and viminalol (2.57%). Most of the active compounds present in the stem of Euphorbia tirucalli Linn. have previously been shown to exhibit antimicrobial properties.
Plants, Medicinal ; Medicine, Traditional

Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) measures the extent of agreement and consistency among raters for two or more numerical or quantitative variables. This review paper aimed to present several tables that could illustrate the minimum sample sizes required for estimating the desired effect size of ICC, which is a measurement of the magnitude of an agreement. Determination of the minimum sample size under such circumstances is based on the two fundamentally important parameters, namely the actual value of the ICC and the number of observations made by each subject. The sample size calculations are derived from Power Analysis and Sample Size (PASS) software where the alpha and minimum required power is fixed at 0.05 and higher than 0.80 respectively. A discussion on how to use these tables for determining sample sizes required for each of the various scenarios and the limitations associated with their use in each of these scenarios is provided.

The present study aimed to determine the best polymerase chain reaction (PCR) conditions for amplification of odontoblast markers; alkaline phosphatase (ALP), dentin matrix protein 1 (DMP1), dentin sialophosphoprotein (DSPP) and osteopontin (OPN). Informed consent was obtained from the individuals prior to tooth extraction. RNA was extracted from odontoblasts obtained from extracted teeth using innuPREP RNA Mini kit (Analytik Jena, Germany). Five selected target factors in enhancing PCR: primer concentration, extension time, number of cycles, annealing time, and annealing temperature were manipulated to yield the correct size of amplicons. One step reverse transcriptase PCR reactions were performed using MyTaq One-Step RT-PCR kit (Bioline, USA) with a C1000 Thermal Cycler (Bio-Rad, USA) in a 25 µL reaction, keeping the amount of 2 ng/µL RNA, 0.25 µL reverse transcriptase, 0.5 µL RiboSafe Rnase inhibitor and 1X MyTaq One-Step Mix, constant. The optimal conditions were determined to be 400nM of primers for DMP1 and DSPP, 200 nM for ALP and OPN; 30 seconds of extension time and 35 PCR cycles for all genes; 10 seconds of annealing time for ALP, DMP1 and DSPP, 7 seconds for OPN. The annealing temperature were 56.4°C for ALP, 58.6°C for DMP1, 52.7°C for DSPP, and 56.3°C for OPN, respectively. The optimized PCR protocols produced the correct size of odontoblast markers.
Polymerase Chain Reaction