Areca nut, commonly called as betel nut or supari, is a fruit of areca catechu palm tree, which is native of South Asia and Pacific Islands. The seed or endosperm is consumed fresh, boiled or after sun drying or curing. Chewing areca nut is thought to have central nervous system stimulating effect and along with this it is known to have salivary stimulating and digestive properties. According to the traditional Ayurvedic medicine, chewing areca nut and betel leaf is a good remedy against halitosis. It is also used for its deworming property. Along with these beneficial effects of areca nut one of its most harmful effects on the human body in general and oral cavity in particular is the development of potentially malignant disorder called Oral Submucous Fibrosis. The present paper discusses in detail the effects of the components of areca nut on pathogenesis of Oral Submucous Fibrosis. Key words:Areca nut, oral submucous fibrosis, potentially malignant disorder, supari.

Identification plays a very important role in any crime investigation. Cheiloscopy helps in identifying the humans based on the lips’ traces. The pattern of wrinkles on the lips has individual characteristics like fingerprints. A review of the literature reveals very little research done on lip prints so far. The present article reviews in detail the history, scope of cheiloscopy, and the use of lip prints in crime detection. It also highlights the current research carried out in the field of cheiloscopy. An effort has been made to help the researchers by reviewing in detail the various methods of classifying and analyzing the lip prints. It concludes by enlightening the readers with the fact that the possibilities to use the red part of lips to identify a human being are wider than it is commonly thought.

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Aim:To evaluate the uniqueness and to define a standard method for the analysis of lip prints.Materials and Methods:Lip prints of 100 students were taken using Scotch tape without any distortion. These prints were then scanned for the digital analysis. Using Adobe Photoshop 7 software an attempt was made to trace each and every line using Suzuki and Tsuchihashi's classification. Weighted value scoring system was used to check for the uniqueness of the lip prints.Results:No two lip prints had exactly matching scores in all four Quadrants. No statistically significant difference was found in the change of pattern in lip print images collected after 12 months from the same individual. With digital analysis, up to 15 lines were traceable in 66%, 71%, 52% and 51% of Quadrant I, II, III and IV respectively.Conclusion:Lip prints are unique to an individual. The digital method of analyzing lip print images serves better visualization, ease in identification and recording of the lip print pattern. Weighted Value Scoring system can be considered as a standard method for determining the uniqueness of the lip prints.

Osteoma is a benign slow growing osteogenic lesion, composed of well-differentiated mature bone tissue, characterized by the proliferation of compact or cancellous bone, almost exclusively found in the head and neck region. Central, peripheral and extra skeletal are the three variants of osteoma. Trauma, inflammation, developmental disorders and genetic defects are considered as the etiologic factors. Paranasal sinuses are the favourite locations of peripheral osteoma of the craniofacial region; frontal and ethmoidal sinuses being the common ones. Although, peripheral osteomas are usually benign, innocuous lesions, their size and prominent location on the visible parts of the face makes the surgical intervention necessary. We report case of multiple peripheral osteomas of forehead, without involvement of the frontal sinus, which is a rare variety.