Without access to their own families, how do young, unaccompanied refugee minors re-establish their social lives in ways that facilitate a sense of togetherness in their everyday lives during resettlement? This question was approached by exploring the young persons’ creation of relational practices and the kinds of sociomaterial conditions that seemed to facilitate the evolvement of these practices, including the professional caregivers’ contributions. Interviews with 11 boys and 4 girls (aged 13–16) from Afghanistan, Somalia, Angola and Sri Lanka, as well as their professional caregivers in their country of residence, Norway, were analysed systematically by searching for, and categorizing, the variation of relational practices among the young persons. Three overarching practices are presented. First, the young persons worked to connect past, present and future contexts through collective meaning-making practices. Second, they regulated their peers’ emotions through emotional care practices. Third, they widened each other’s social networks through practices of social inclusion. Following the resettlement procedure the young persons moved from one kind of institution (care centre) to other parts of the country and to another kind of institution (group home) where the relational practices mentioned above appeared to be less prevalent. The article suggests that arranging everyday life as collective enterprises, as well as housing peers with similar cultural backgrounds, were central for the evolvement of the relational practices. As such, the article both elucidates a range of health-promoting relational practices that the young persons’ realised as a group as well as how these practices are embedded in sociomaterial conditions.

Unaccompanied refugee minors are, like other youngsters, making their moves towards adulthood, but under most challenging conditions. Informed by a cultural psychological approach to development, we analysed interviews with 18 unaccompanied Afghan boys and their professional caregivers. ‘Establishing a liveable life in Norway’ and ‘helping the family in the country of origin’ were analysed as central developmental projects for the boys, the former actively supported by the caregivers, the latter typically not. Considering what each individual is trying to achieve and how their projects are received by significant others sheds light on the boys’ struggles, as well as their coping.

Temporary mental paresthesia of the lower lip as a result of orthodontic treatment is extremely rare. Only two cases seem to have been reported earlier, a further case is described and discussed. The cause of this uncommon complication in the present case is obviously the close relationship between the distal root of the lower left second permanent molar and the mandibular canal.