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Saliva plays an important role in maintaining microbial homeostasis in the oral cavity, while salivary gland hypofunction predisposes the oral mucosa to pathologic alteration and increases the risk for oral candidiasis. This study sought to determine the salivary flow rate (SFR) and secretory immunoglobulin A (SIgA) levels in HIV-positive and HIV-negative individuals and evaluate their relationship with the determinants of oral candidiasis. Sixty HIV-positive (30 with and 30 without oral candidiasis) and 30 healthy HIV-negative individuals were enrolled. Cotton pellet was weighed pre- and post-saliva collection for the assessment of SFR, while SIgA levels were estimated by commercial ELISA (Diametra, Italy) kit. The mean ± SD, SFR and SIgA levels in HIV-positive individuals with candidiasis, without candidiasis and HIV-negative controls were 0.396 ± 0.290, 0.546 ± 0.355 and 0.534 ± 0.214 ml/min and 115.891 ± 37.621, 136.024 ± 51.075 and 149.418 ± 31.765 µg/ml, respectively. A positive correlation between low CD4 counts (indicator of immunodeficiency) and SIgA was observed in HIV-positive individuals with candidiasis (r = 0.373, p = 0.045). We also report here for the first time the significant decrease in SFR and SIgA levels in individuals presenting with pseudomembranous type of oral candidiasis and Candida albicans infection.

Background: Surgical extraction of mandibular third molars is an important and one of the most frequently performed operative procedures in dentistry. There are a variety of postoperative complications that may follow this procedure. These include pain, trismus, infection, dry socket, or alveolar osteitis. Numerous techniques have been used for reducing these morbid conditions. These range from flap designs, suture placement, use of various irrigating solutions, etc., Aim: The present study aimed to compare the effectiveness of three irrigating solutions: Ozonated water, normal saline, and povidone-iodine in reducing postoperative complications following surgical removal of impacted mandibular third molars. Materials and Methods: A total of 100 study participants formed the sample size of this study. Study subjects were categorized into three groups: Group I (third molar surgeries using ozonated water), Group II (third molar surgeries with normal saline irrigation), and Group III (third molar surgeries using povidone-iodine irrigation). Parameters studied postoperatively were alveolar osteitis (dry socket), pain, trismus, and infection after a week interval. All data obtained were entered in Microsoft Excel 2007 worksheets and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) as a statistical tool was employed. A P value of < 0.01 was considered statistically significant. Results: It was found that ozonated water provided the best statistically proven results with comparison to normal saline and povidone-iodine in reducing the incidence of alveolar osteitis or dry socket and pain. No statistically significant difference was observed in the incidence of trismus and infection rate among three studied groups. Conclusion: Ozonated water is the best irrigating solution when compared to normal saline and povidone-iodine in terms of reduction in pain and dry socket after a 1-week duration.

Background: Dental, fingerprints and DNA comparisons are most common techniques used in identification of an individual. Establishing the identity of an individual was one of the challenges faced by forensic in earlier days. The concept of "identity" is a set of physical characteristics, functional or psychic, normal or pathological- that define an individual. The present study was conducted to study the correlation of lip prints, fingerprints and mandibular intercanine distance for the gender determination. Material & methods: The study was conducted among 400 participants (200 males and 200 females) aged between 18 and 25 years, in department of Oral Pathology of the Institute of dental sciences, Sehora, Jammu. Cheiloscopy, fingerprint analysis, and mandibular canine index (MCI) were performed in each participant to investigate the accuracy in gender determination. The results of all the three parameters were collected and a correlation between each pair of the parameters was statistically done using univariate ANOVA test. Results: With regard to lip print pattern, Type II lip print was found to be predominant in males (35.5) and in both(33) whereas Type I was predominant in females (32).

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Background: The present study was conducted to assess serum and salivary lactate dehydrogenase and uric acid levels in oral squamous cell carcinoma patients.  Materials & Methods: 62 patients of oral squamous cell carcinoma patients of both genders were enrolled. Patients were divided into two groups. Group I had SCC patients and group II had normal subjects. In all, serum and unstimulated saliva samples obtained and subjected to assessment of lactate dehydrogenase and uric acid levels. Results: The mean serum LDH level (U/L) in group I was 342.8 and in group II was 246.0. The mean salivary LDH level (U/L) in group I was 652.8 and in group II was 248.4. The difference was significant (P< 0.05). The mean serum uric acid (mg/dl) in group I was 6.98 and in group II was 5.12. The mean salivary uric acid in group I was 5.92 and in group II was 5.26. The difference was significant (P< 0.05). Conclusion: OSCC patients had elevated level of serum and salivary LDH and uric acid.

Objectives: Candidiasis is one of the most common fungal infections affecting the oral cavity in HIV-seropositive patients. Various Candida species, (both albicans as well as non-albicans) are identified as the causative organisms. These species are identified by various methods. Chromogenic media are frequently used in direct and rapid identification of yeasts as different Candida species produce different colors on these media. Difference in expression of putative virulence factors and antifungal susceptibility pattern among different Candida species has raised the need for species-level identification. This study aims at identifying various Candida species using HiChrom agar in HIV-seropositive patients in different clinical variants of oral candidiasis. Materials and Methods: Swabs were collected from 30 HIV-seropositive patients with oral candidiasis. HiChrome agar was used to identify the Candida species. Results: Based on the color of the colonies on HiChrom agar we found that 46.6% (n = 14) patients showed a combination of light green and purple color colonies of C. albicans and C. tropicalis, 16.6% (n = 5) cases showed light green colonies of C. albicans, 13.3% (n = 4) cases produced dark green colonies of C. dublienisis, 10% (n = 3) cases produced pink color colonies of C. glabrata, 6.6% (n = 2) produced off white colonies of C. parapsilosis, 3.3% (n = 1) produced deep blue colonies of C. tropicalis and 3.3% (n = 1) cases showed combination of off white and purple color colonies of C. parapsilosis and C. tropicalis. C. albicans as well as mixed Candida species were commonly seen in pseudomembranous oral candidiasis. Conclusions: Identification of these species is important to target the specific drug for treatment. germ tube test, corn meal agar, carbohydrate fermentation and assimilation test are performed but these procedures are labor intensive and take longer time for identification. To facilitate rapid identification, several chromogenic substrate containing culture media have been developed. The use of HiChrom agar has been reported to be valuable for the rapid and precise identification of albicans and non-albican species. [8] This study aims at identifying various Candida species using HiChrom agar in HIV-seropositive patients in different clinical variants of oral candidiasis as some Candida species are resistant to few antifungal agents. Identification of species becomes important to target the specific species with appropriate drug therapy. Materials and Methods The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of D Y Patil Dental College and National AIDS Research Institute. HIV-seropositive patients with oral candidiasis attending the outpatient department of National AIDS Research Institute (NARI) Clinic, Pune were included in the study.