Early diagnosis represents the target of contemporary medicine and has an important role in the prognosis and further treatment. Saliva is a biofluid that generated a high interest among researchers due to its multiple advantages over other body fluids. The multitude of components that can act as biomarkers influenced the existing technologies to develop protocols that could allow saliva to become the new noninvasive diagnostic method. Saliva as a diagnostic tool can bring substantial addition to the diagnostic armamentarium, providing important information about oral and general health. The diagnostic applications of saliva extended and had a rapid evolution due to the advancement in salivaomics. The present review summarizes the latest researches in saliva-related studies and explores the information and correlations that saliva can offer regarding the systemic and oral diseases, highlighting its great potential of diagnosis. It is expected that in the future specific guidelines and results regarding the salivary diagnostics are to be available, together with high-sensitivity and specificity tests for multiple systemic and oral diseases.

Fast, economic, and noninvasive, molecular analysis of saliva has the potential to become a diagnostic tool of reference for several local and systemic diseases, oral cancer included. The diagnosis of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma (OSCC) can be performed using high specificity and sensibility biomarkers that can be encountered in the biological fluids. Recent advances in salivary proteomics have underlined the potential use of salivary biomarkers as early diagnosis screening tools for oral neoplasia. In this respect, over 100 salivary molecules have been described and proposed as oral cancer biomarkers, out of which cytokines are among the most promising. Besides being directly involved in inflammation and immune response, the role of salivary cytokines in tumor growth and progression linked them to the incidence of oral malignant lesions. This review summarizes the existing studies based on the use of salivary cytokines as potential oral cancer biomarkers, their involvement in the malignant process based on their type, and ther influence upon prognostic and metastatic rates.

Phytocompounds and medicinal herbs were used in traditional ancient medicine and are nowadays increasingly screened in both experimental and clinical settings due to their beneficial effects in several major pathologies. Similar to the drug industry, phytotherapy is interested in using nanobased delivery systems to view the identification and characterization of the cellular and molecular therapeutic targets of plant components. Eugenol, the major phenolic constituent of clove essential oil, is a particularly versatile phytochemical with a vast range of therapeutic properties, among which the anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and anticarcinogenic effects have been systematically addressed. In the past decade, with the emerging understanding of the role of mitochondria as critical organelles in the pathophysiology of noncommunicable diseases, research regarding the role of phytochemicals as modulators of bioenergetics and metabolism is on a rise. Here, we present a brief overview of the major pharmacological properties of eugenol, with special emphasis on its applications in dental medicine, and provide preliminary data regarding its effects, alone, and included in polyurethane nanostructures, on mitochondrial bioenergetics, and glycolysis in human HaCaT keratinocytes.

The advancements made in biomaterials have an important impact on oral tissue engineering, especially on the bone regeneration process. Currently known as the gold standard in bone regeneration, grafting procedures can sometimes be successfully replaced by a biomaterial scaffold with proper characteristics. Whether natural or synthetic polymers, biomaterials can serve as potential scaffolds with major influences on cell adhesion, proliferation and differentiation. Continuous research has enabled the development of scaffolds that can be specifically designed to replace the targeted tissue through changes in their surface characteristics and the addition of growth factors and biomolecules. The progress in tissue engineering is incontestable and research shows promising contributions to the further development of this field. The present review aims to outline the progress in oral tissue engineering, the advantages of biomaterial scaffolds, their direct implication in the osteogenic process and future research directions.

Titanium alloys are known for their biological, mechanical and chemical properties, which have successfully expanded their use in the maxillofacial field. The internal fixation using titanium miniplates and screws offer a new perspective for the treatment of trauma and in orthognathic surgery and maxillofacial oncology. Although, titanium is highly recommended for its excellent biocompatibility, recent research has focused on identifying the potential local and general implications of the interactions between the human tissue and the metallic particles. This present review aims to outline the existing tissue changes, cellular alterations and future perspectives regarding the use of titanium-based alloys as osteosynthesis materials, taking into consideration the existing present debate whether the routinely removal of these materials should be an indication.

Examining specific patterns of major cranio-facial alterations through cephalometric measurements in order to improve the Prader–Willi (PWS) syndrome diagnostic poses a major challenge of identifying interlinkages between numerous credentials. These interactions can be captured through probabilistic models of conditional independence between heterogeneous variables. Our research included 18 subjects (aged 4 to 28 years) genetically diagnosed with Prader–Willi syndrome and a healthy control group (matched age and sex). A morphometric and cephalometric analysis was performed upon all the subjects in order to obtain the needed specific data. We have, therefore, firstly deployed several integrated Gaussian graphical models (GGMs) to capture the positive and negative partial correlations and the intensity of the connections between numerous credentials configured to determine specific cranio-facial characteristics of patients with PWS compared to others without this genetic disorder (case-control analysis). Afterwards, we applied structural equation modelling (SEM) with latent class analysis to assess the impact of these coordinates on the prevalence of the Prader–Willi diagnostic. We found that there are latent interactions of features affected by external variables, and the interlinkages are strapping particularly between cranial base (with an important role in craniofacial disharmonies) and facial heights, as important characteristic patterns in determining the Prader–Willi diagnostic, while the overall patterns are significantly different in PWS and the control group. These results impact the field by providing an enhanced comprehensive perspective on cephalometric characteristics and specific patterns associated with Prader–Willi syndrome that can be used as benchmarks in determining the diagnostic of this rare genetic disorder. Furthermore, the two innovative exploratory research tools applied in this paper are very useful to the craniofacial field to infer the connections/dependencies between variables (particularly biological variables and genes) on cephalometric characteristics and specific patterns associated with Prader–Willi syndrome.

numerous studies have been published to date regarding clinical, laboratory and treatment aspects associated with COVID-19. The present study attempts to compare and unify the clinical, para-clinical and therapeutic aspects that have come to light regarding coronavirus disease-19 (COVID 19), mainly in adults. Between April 2020 and September 2021, a comprehensive systematic literature review was performed, which we added to from our own medical experiences. The search was performed on the PubMed, Scopus and Google Scholar databases, comprising studies with analyzable data that were identified alongside studies and documents containing general scientific data. All published studies were written in English, and were from different countries. A 95% confidence interval (CI95) was also calculated for almost each study using the Wilson formula. When compared with preliminary reports between December 2019 and January 2020, the most frequent symptoms were still identified as being fever (68.6%; CI95: 67.5-69.7) and cough (72.7%; CI95: 71.7-73.8). Nevertheless, asymptomatic cases also increased (by 21.4%; CI95: 16.6-27.1). Severe and critical cases accounted for 10.4% (CI95: 9.6-11.1) of all cases. The mean fatality rate was found to be 4% (CI95: 3.6-4.5). The primary co-morbidity found was hypertension (28.9%; CI95: 27-30.8), followed by other underlying cardiovascular diseases (15.4%; CI95: 13.9-16.9) and diabetes (14.5%; CI95: 13.1-16.1). The majority of studies showed lower white blood cell numbers with neutropenia and lymphopenia, and lower platelet levels. The levels of the biomarkers C-reaction protein and erythrocyte sedimentation rate were positive in all studied cases alongside other lab tests, such as examining the D-dimer levels and those of other hepatic, cardiac and renal injury markers. The procalcitonin level was also found to be elevated in many cases, resulting in high usage of antibiotics (83.7%; CI95: 81.2-85.9). Approximately 31.6% (CI95: 29.1-34.1) of the patients required non-invasive ventilation, whereas 9.9% (CI95: 8.1-12.1) of the patients were intubated or placed on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. The most used antivirals were ribavirin (67.3%; CI95: 63.4-70.9), oseltamivir (52.5%; CI95: 49.4-55.5) and Arbidol™ (34.5%; CI95: 32-37.1). General admittance to the intensive care unit was ~7.2% (CI95: 6.5-7.9) of patients.

Background : Oral cancer is a worldwide public health problem, being the sixth most common neoplasm. The high mortality rate of this type of cancer is due to a delayed diagnosis, a fast evolution and metastasis, no primary symptomatology, the multitude of risk factors and the lack of awareness among the population concerning oral malignancy. Aim : The aim of this 5-year retrospective study was to evaluate the incidence of oral cancer patients in the Clinic of Maxillo-Facial Surgery, Emergency County Hospital, Timişoara, Romania and quantify the histopathological (HP) subtypes, localization, age, gender, tumor staging and differentiation, positive loco-regional lymph nodes and risk factors. Patients, Materials and Methods : A number of 129 patients diagnosed with oral cancer were included in the study and their medical records were analyzed. A statistical analysis was performed that included the variables gender, age, tumor staging, differentiation grade, HP subtype, lymph nodes, localization, and risk factors. Results : Our results outlined a high prevalence of oral cancer among males (65.9%), squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) being the most common HP subtype. Tumor staging revealed the fact that the majority of were T3 and T4 tumors with dissemination in the loco-regional lymph nodes. In 52% of the cases, tobacco was identified as a risk factor, and the association of tobacco and alcohol was present in 28.3% of the cases. Conclusions : The early diagnosis is crucial for the improvement of oral cancer survival rate. The oral cavity is permanently exposed to carcinogenic substances that associated with other risk factors have an influence upon the incidence of oral malignancies.