Context:Significant increase in vascularity occurs during the transition from normal oral mucosa, through differing degrees of dysplasia, to invasive squamous cell carcinoma (SCC).Aims:To evaluate microvessel density (MVD) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression in oral tumorigenesis and correlate it with the clinicopathological characteristics.Settings and Design:VEGF expression and MVD were quantified immunohistochemically using anti-VEGF and anti-CD34 antibody.Materials and Methods:For this study we used a total of 60 archival specimens, including 10 normal oral mucosa (NOM), 7 mild epithelial dysplasia (Mild ED), 8 moderate epithelial dysplasia (Mod ED), 5 severe epithelial dysplasia (SED), 14 well-differentiated SCC, 11 moderately-differentiated SCC, and 5 poorly-differentiated SCC. VEGF expression was assessed in relation to the localization, intensity, and area of the immunohistochemically stained cells. MVD was evaluated using the Image-Pro® Plus software.Statistical Analysis:One-way ANOVA (F test) was carried out for comparing the parameters for multiple groups such as different histopathological grades of dysplasia and carcinoma. Comparison between groups was carried out using the Student's ‘t’ test. Correlations between VEGF score and MVD were estimated using the Karl Pearson coefficient of correlation.Results:VEGF and MVD appeared to increase with disease progression and were statistically higher in oral SCC than in epithelial dysplasia and normal buccal mucosa. There was significant correlation between VEGF expression and MVD.Conclusions:These findings indicate that VEGF expression is upregulated during head and neck tumorigenesis.

To investigate the relationship between oral health measures and oral health-related quality of life using the Child-Oral Impact on Daily Performance index among school children of Modinagar. A cross-sectional analytical study was conducted on 900 school children aged 12 and 15 years in Modinagar, India. Children were interviewed about sociodental impacts on quality of life and examined for their normative treatment need for dental caries, traumatic dental injuries, and dentofacial anomalies. Frequency distributions for bivariate analysis and logistic regression for multivariate analysis were used for statistical analysis. Prevalence of oral impacts was high (60%), with a mean score of 2.49 ± 3.92. A significant association (P ≤ .05) was observed in oral impacts on daily performances with age, presence of dental caries, traumatic injuries, and dentofacial anomalies score. A strong association between clinical dental indicators and oral impacts in children showed eating followed by cleaning of teeth and smiling as the most commonly affected daily performances.

Context:Dental remains are usually the last to get destroyed among body parts after death. They may be useful for personal identification in cases of mass disasters and decomposed unidentified bodies. Dental records may help in the identification of suspects in criminal investigations and in medicolegal cases. Maintenance of dental records is legally mandatory in most of the European and American countries. Unfortunately, the law is not very clear in India, and the awareness is very poor.Aims:To assess the awareness regarding the dental record maintenance among dentists in Rajasthan, to deduce the quality of average dental records kept by them and to evaluate the potential use of their maintained records, in any of forensic or medicolegal cases.Settings and Design:A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 100 dental practitioners of different cities in Rajasthan, India.Materials and Methods:Data were collected through a structured questionnaire, which was responded by the study population in the course of a telephonic interview. The questionnaire addressed on the mode of maintaining dental records in their regular practice.Statistical Analysis Used:The data so gathered were subjected for descriptive analysis.Results:As for knowledge or awareness about maintaining dental records, surprisingly a very low percentile (about 38%) of surveyed dentists maintained records. Sixty-two percent of the dentists were maintaining no records at all.Conclusion:Nonmaintenance or poor quality of records maintained indicates that the dentists in Rajasthan are not prepared for any kind of forensic and medicolegal need if it arises.

The observed aberrant methylation frequencies of the RASSF1A and APC gene promoters indicate that an accumulation of epigenetic events at these specific TSG promoters may be associated with the malignant transformation of benign cystadenomas and LMP tumours to carcinomas.

Objective of the present study was to investigate relationship between oral health-related quality of life using Oral Impacts on Daily Performances (OIDP) scale and specific clinical dental measures. A cross sectional descriptive survey was conducted among 800 students. Oral health status and impacts were assessed using WHO guidelines and OIDP index respectively. Chi square test and multiple logistic regressions were employed for statistical analysis. Participants with caries were significantly (p⩽0.05) more likely to have an impact on cleaning (OR=2.487) and sleeping and relaxing (OR=8.996). Similarly participants with oral mucosal conditions were more likely to have an impact on eating (OR=3.97), cleaning (OR=2.966) and physical activities (OR=11.190). Dental Aesthetic Index (DAI) impacted on cleaning (OR=2.134), emotional stability (OR=3.957) and social contact (OR=3.21). OIDP Index showed acceptable psychometric properties in the context of an oral health survey. Subjects presented a strong and consistent relationship between dental status and perceived impacts.