Bacterial Viability within Dental Calculus: An Untrodden, Inquisitive Clinico-Patho- Microbiological Research

Optical Methods for Label-Free Detection of Bacteria

Pathogenic bacteria are the leading causes of food-borne and water-borne infections, and one of the most serious public threats. Traditional bacterial detection techniques, including plate culture, polymerase chain reaction, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay are time-consuming, while hindering precise therapy initiation. Thus, rapid detection of bacteria is of vital clinical importance in reducing the misuse of antibiotics. Among the most recently developed methods, the label-free optical approach is one of the most promising methods that is able to address this challenge due to its rapidity, simplicity, and relatively low-cost. This paper reviews optical methods such as surface-enhanced Raman scattering spectroscopy, surface plasmon resonance, and dark-field microscopic imaging techniques for the rapid detection of pathogenic bacteria in a label-free manner. The advantages and disadvantages of these label-free technologies for bacterial detection are summarized in order to promote their application for rapid bacterial detection in source-limited environments and for drug resistance assessments.

Dental calculus: A repository of bioinformation indicating diseases and human evolution

Dental calculus has long been considered as a vital contributing factor of periodontal diseases. Our review focuses on the role of dental calculus as a repository and discusses the bioinformation recently reported to be concealed in dental calculus from three perspectives: time-varying oral condition, systemic diseases, and anthropology at various times. Molecular information representing an individual's contemporary oral health status could be detected in dental calculus. Additionally, pathogenic factors of systemic diseases were found in dental calculus, including bacteria, viruses and toxic heavy metals. Thus, dental calculus has been proposed to play a role as biological data storage for detection of molecular markers of latent health concerns. Through the study of environmental debris in dental calculus, an overview of an individual's historical dietary habits and information about the environment, individual behaviors and social culture changes can be unveiled. This review summarizes a new role of dental calculus as a repository of bioinformation, with potential use in the prediction of oral diseases, systemic diseases, and even anthropology.

Clinical and radiographic evaluation of demineralized freeze-dried bone allograft with concentrated growth factor versus concentrated growth factor alone in the treatment of intrabony defects

Background

Periodontal disease is one of the major causes of alveolar bone loss. There are various ways of regenerating the lost bone, i.e. guided tissue regeneration, bone grafts, and growth factors. In this purview, it becomes immensely important for a clinician to decide the best modality of treatment. In this study, we compared the effect of demineralized freeze-dried bone allograft (DFDBA) in combination with concentrated growth factors (CGF) verses CGF alone.

Methods

This double-blind, split-mouth study was conducted on ten patients with two comparable bilateral intrabony defects. Each pair of defects was randomly treated by DFDBA + CGF or CGF alone. Clinical parameters such as plaque index (PI), modified gingival index (MGI), pocket probing depth (PPD), and relative attachment level (RAL) were recorded at baseline, three months, and six months. In addition, radiograph with grids was also taken at baseline and six months. The paired t-test was used to compare the pre- and post-treatment values and the unpaired t-test was used to compare the test and control group.

Results

The PI score decreased significantly from baseline to six months. Similarly, the mean MGI score decreased significantly from baseline to six months. The intragroup comparison showed that there was a significant reduction in PPD in both the test and control group. However, the intergroup comparison showed that the reduced pocket depth was not significant. The intragroup radiographic comparison showed that there was the significant formation of bone in both the test and control group but inter-group showed that the formation of bone among both the group were non-significant.

Conclusion

Radiographic and clinical outcomes of this study concluded that post six months, both groups demonstrated significant improvement in clinical and radiographic parameters. However, the addition of DFDBA to CGFs did not give any additional benefits.

Giant Dental Calculus: A Rare Case Report and Review

Inadequate oral hygiene is the root cause of the initiation and establishment of the periodontal disease. Dental calculus serves as plaque retentive area, thereby contributing to gingivitis and periodontitis. The present unusual case is of a 55-year-old female patient reported to the department of periodontology with a chief complaint of hard deposit at the right maxillary and mandibular posterior region. The patient was found to have very heavy calculus deposition with respect to right maxillary and mandibular posterior teeth, and the patient was using the left side for mastication and avoiding chewing from the right side mainly due to some periodontal problem. The extraction of the hopeless teeth along with dental calculus was done. Dimensions of dental calculi at maxillary and mandibular teeth was 4 cm × 3 cm each.

The microbial community shifts of subgingival plaque in patients with generalized aggressive periodontitis following non-surgical periodontal therapy: a pilot study

The object of this study is to characterize the bacterial community of subgingival plaque of two subjects with generalized aggressive periodontitis (GAgP) pre- and post-treatment. We picked two patients with GAgP and used high-throughput 16S rDNA sequencing. V4 hypervariable region was picked for PCR amplification of subgingival samples. Then, the PCR products were sequenced through Illumina MiSeq platform. One month after therapy, both the clinical features and periodontal parameters improved obviously. Moreover, the composition and structure of subgingival bacterial community changed after initial periodontal therapy. Also, the composition of the subgingival microbiota was highly individualized among different patients. Bacteroidetes, Spirochaetes and Fusobacteria were related to pathogenicity of GAgP while Actinobacteria and Proteobacteria seemed associated with clinical symptoms resolution. In this study, we found the subgingival bacterial community was high in species richness but dominated by a few species or phylotypes, with significant shifts of microbiota that occurred after treatment. This study demonstrated the shift of the subgingival bacterial community before and after treatment by high-throughput 16S rDNA sequencing, and provided a concise method for analysis of microbial community for periodontal diseases.

Orofacial Bacterial Infectious Diseases: An Update

OBJECTIVES

Most of the oral infections with odontogenic origin are very common and can be treated by tooth extraction, endodontic therapy, or surgical treatment. Other infectious lesions are the manifestations of systemic diseases such as tuberculosis and syphilis. Skin and underlying subcutaneous tissue, fascia, or muscle is also involved with infectious diseases which range from superficial epidermal infections to very serious necrotizing fasciitis.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

An extensive literature in PubMed, Google Scholar, and Scopus search was performed from 1980 to 2017. All related articles were analyzed.

RESULTS

Most oral infections have odontogenic origin. Skin and the underlying subcutaneous tissue, fascia, or muscles are also involved with infectious diseases which range from superficial epidermal infections to very serious necrotizing fasciitis.

CONCLUSIONS

These facts prove that the interaction between the oral cavity, face skin, and the other organs can risk the people's life. The establishment of a correct diagnosis and recognition of clinical findings are the crucial steps to support and improve professional orofacial health status.