Aim:To describe the work-related musculoskeletal disorders among on-job dental surgeons.Objectives:To identify the musculoskeletal disorders in terms of perception of pain and stiffness experienced by the dental surgeons due to the rigors of dental work, to determine the prevailing working environment with particular reference to dental work station in relation to musculoskeletal disorders, and to find the association between pain and stiffness experienced by the dental surgeons and the selected socio-demographic variables.Materials and Methods:The study was conducted on 30 graduated dental surgeons having a work experience of 1 year or more, post graduates and faculty members of various specialties at Yenepoya Dental College Hospital, Mangalore. The subjects were selected randomly from the hospital and they were given closed-ended questionnaire to find out perception of pain and stiffness experienced in the past 6 months. The observation of the working environment was done by walk-through observational survey.Results:The study showed that 6.6% dental surgeons always experienced shoulder pain, while 83.3% dental surgeons sometimes experienced back pain and 70% sometimes experienced neck pain. Majority of the dental surgeons (73.3%) experienced stiffness in the back and 23.3% experienced severe pain in their neck. It was observed that the number of patients attended per day by the dental surgeons had a significant association (P = 0.024) with the pain they experienced in their hip/thigh region. The frequency of pain experienced by the dental surgeons in the hip/thigh and knee joints also showed a significant association (P = 0.037) with the height of the dental surgeons.Conclusion:The study revealed that various socio-demographic variables contributed to the musculoskeletal disorders experienced by the dental surgeons. However, the number of patients attended per day by the dental surgeons vis-à-vis pain experienced in the back, wrist, and hip/thigh was significant.

Background:Articaine is an amide local anesthetic that differs from other agents of its group due to the presence of a thiophene ring instead of a benzene ring, and it is one of the commonly used local anesthetic agents for day care surgeries. Some researches claim that articaine is superior to lidocaine in its biologic profile.Purpose:To evaluate the efficacy, time of onset of anesthesia, duration of action and intra- or post-administration complications of articaine in comparison with lignocaine for bilateral extraction of maxillary premolars for orthodontic reasons.Materials and Methods:The study was carried out in 20 patients visiting the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Yenepoya Dental College and Hospital, Mangalore, needing bilateral extraction of maxillary premolars for orthodontic purposes. A volume of 0.6–1 ml of 4% articaine hydrochloride (HCl) was injected in the buccal vestibule on one side and 1–2 ml of 2% lignocaine HCl was injected on the other side. After attaining adequate anesthesia, the extraction procedure was carried out under aseptic conditions.Results:An onset period 0.975 ± 0.1118 and 2.950 ± 0.5104 min and duration of anesthesia of 72 ± 17.275 and 49 ± 5.026 min was found for articaine and lignocaine, respectively. Statistically significant differences were noted in the perception of pain using the visual analogue scale.Conclusion:Articaine can be used as an alternative to lignocaine, especially in the extraction of maxillary premolars for orthodontic reasons. The clinical advantages including rapid onset, longer duration of action and greater diffusing property over lignocaine and the elimination of the need for a painful palatal injection were demonstrated.

Context:With an increase in the abuse of various oral habitual products in India over the past few decades; the incidence of oral potentially malignant conditions as leukoplakia, oral submucous fibrosis and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) rates have also increased. No recent study has been conducted reporting the scenario of oral cancer and potentially malignant conditions in Eastern India (specifically Kolkata).Aims:The present study was conducted at Dr. R. Ahmed Dental College, Kolkata during 2010-2011 to find a possible correlation between the effects of the different oral habits, age, sex and the different types of oral mucosal lesions among patients reported to the hospital. This study also enabled us to see the predilection of the various histopathological stages of the lesions for different sites of the oral cavity.Subjects and Methods:The study group consisted of 698 patients having either oral potentially malignant or malignant lesion. The control group consisted of 948 patients who had reported to the hospital for different oral/dental problems and had the habit of tobacco, areca nut and/or alcohol usage for at least 1 year.Statistical Analysis:The unadjusted odds ratio, the 95% confidence interval, and the P value were calculated to correlate patients with/without different kinds of habit and having/not having various kinds of oral lesions.Results:Our study shows that for males having the habit of taking smokeless tobacco or mixed habit poses the highest risk for developing SCC. For females, significant risk of developing SCC was found in patients habituated to processed areca nut chewing.Conclusion:This study presents probably for the first time in recent years the occurrence of oral potentially malignant and malignant conditions amongst patients having deleterious habits in a hospital based population of Kolkata.

Ewing's sarcoma is a malignant tumor of bones that primarily affects children and young adults. The true origin of this small round cell lesion still remains controversial. It was originally described by James Ewing in 1921 as arising from undifferentiated osseous mesenchymal cells; however, recent studies suggest that Ewing's tumor might be neuroectodermally derived from various degrees of differentiation of the primitive neural tissues. This paper reports a rare case of ES of the mandible in an 11-year-old girl, which had been previously misdiagnosed and treated as a dental abscess. In the clinical examination, a hard immobile expansive mass of 2 cm diameter was observed on the left side of the mandible. Radiographic examination revealed a diffuse radiolucent lesion with ill-defined borders and wide vestibular bone plate destruction. Microscopically, the tumor was composed by monotonous small round cells that exhibited immunoreactivity for CD99, vimentin and desmin. Surgical resection of mandible followed by mandibular reconstruction was adopted. The patient was subjected to multiagent chemotherapy with Vincristine [VC], Dactinomycin [AC], Cyclophosphamide [CP] and Doxorubicin [AD]).