Background: Extracted human teeth are regularly used for practice and educational purposes in dental institutions at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Different materials and methods are used for sterilizing extracted teeth to avoid infection from them.

In addition to their important functions in mastication and esthetics, the teeth may also be used as a weapon and under certain circumstances, may leave information as to the identity of the biter. The individuality of the human dentition frequently allows the Forensic Odontologist to reach a strong opinion of association in cases of identification and bite mark analysis. Such analysis can often be useful during the investigation of violent crimes, especially those involving sexual assault. The high number of murder, rape, and child abuse cases has led to increased numbers of forensic cases being heard in courts. Analysis of the bite mark is the second major responsibility of the forensic dentist.

Focal cemento-osseous dysplasia (FCOD) is a benign fibroosseous condition that can be seen in dentulous and edentulous patients. It is an asymptomatic lesion and needs no treatment; however, follow-up is essential due to the possibility that it can progress to a condition called florid cemento-osseous dysplasia. We report a case of FCOD of mandible in a 25-year-old female. Clinically, the lesion resembled periapical pathosis of odontogenic origin. An attempt has been made to discuss the clinical and histopathologic features along with differential diagnosis of cemento-osseous dysplasia.

Cholesterol granuloma is an inflammatory reaction to cholesterol crystals deposition which may develop in a variety of sites including the middle ear, mastoid process or even paranasal sinuses. A dentigerous cyst is the one that encloses the crown of unerupted tooth by expansion of its follicle & is attached to the neck of the tooth. Histopathological examination usually shows a thin fibrous cyst wall which, being derived from dental follicle, consists of young fibroblast widely separated by stroma and ground substance rich in mucopolysaccharide. cholesterol crystals which presents as longitudinal clefts in histologic sections, are frequent feature in the inflammatory lesions like radicular cyst but are very rare in dentigerous cyst. This case study presents an unusual case of cholesterol granuloma occurring in dentigerous cyst wall.

Introduction:Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) comprises one of the largest subsets of cancers with a tendency for regional metastasis. Nodal status is a key prognostic indicator in patients with OSCC, particularly with N0 neck. Occult metastasis in the form of micrometastasis (MM) and isolated tumor cells (ITCs), often goes undetected by routine hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) examination using 1–2 sections for analysis. This limitation could be overcome by combining serial sectioning (SS) with immunohistochemistry (IHC) for the detection of MM and ITC. Pan-cytokeratin (pan-CK) (AE1/AE3) is particularly a useful marker to detect these deposits as their presence has resulted in varied interpretations and different applications of the tumor-node-metastasis system.Objectives:The objective of the study was to identify a suitable method for detecting MM and ITC in lymph nodes (LNs) of OSCC by combining SS and IHC and to compare it with conventional H&E staining.Materials and Methods:This laboratory-based, prospective study was conducted on 133 LNs harnessed from ten patients treated with radical neck dissection for primary OSCC. The LNs were subjected to SS at 100 μm intervals. The sections were stained with routine H&E staining, pan-CK and analyzed for MM and ITC according to criteria laid by Hermanek et al.Statistical Analysis:The obtained data were subjected to statistical analysis using Chi-square test.Results:The application of combination of SS and IHC using pan-CK (AE1/AE3) in our study revealed the presence of MM and ITC in 2.25% of the LNs diagnosed as negative on routine H&E examination. The detection of these occult metastatic deposits resulted in upstaging of 33.33% of the patients.Conclusion:In the view of crucial role of occult LN metastasis in prognosis and survival of OSCC patients with N0 neck, diagnostic tools such as IHC staining, particularly with pan-CK (AE1/AE3), combined with SS should be preferred over conventional methods as they result in upstaging, thus sparing the low-risk patients the morbidity of unnecessary treatment.

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