Objective: To investigate the association between oral piercings and periodontal health or inflammation in patients seeking treatment at the University of Basel, Switzerland. Material and methods:Records of patients from the pool of patients at the Department of Periodontology, Endodontology and Cariology were consecutively screened between November 2016 and January 2017. Eighteen patients with a tongue and/or a lip piercing were included. Three out of 18 patients wore both piercings, that is 14 tongue piercings and seven lip piercings were assessed. Epidemiologic, socio-economic, piercing characteristics and clinical parameters were recorded. Periodontal findings in teeth close to the piercing were compared to the parameters of the total dentition. Results:In patients with a tongue piercing (n = 14), percentages of sites with bleeding on probing, probing pocket depths ≥6 mm, clinical attachment loss ≥6 mm and gingival recessions ≥2 mm were more frequently increased in teeth close to the piercing compared to teeth not affected by the piercing. In patients with a lip piercing (n = 7), periodontal findings did not differ markedly in teeth close to the piercing compared to teeth not affected by the piercing. Conclusions:Tongue piercings may negatively affect periodontal conditions of teeth with close proximity to the piercing. K E Y W O R D S gingival recession, inflammation, lip piercing, oral piercing, periodontal disease, risk factors, tongue piercing | 319 SCHMIDT eT al.

Medication-related osteonecrosis of the jaw (MRONJ) is a potentially preventable adverse side effect of mainly antiresorptive drugs. MRONJ is expected to become a growing clinical problem due to the aging population and the increasing number of patients requiring antiresorptive agents. Knowledge and awareness about MRONJ and elimination of the oral and dental risk factors before starting antiresorptive therapy (AR) are fundamental to reducing the incidence of MRONJ. In urology, ARs are used primarily in patients suffering from bone metastases due to prostate cancer and to prevent cancer-treatment-induced bone loss (CTIBL) in prostate cancer patients receiving endocrine therapy. This postal survey aimed to evaluate disease-related knowledge and awareness about implementing oral examinations for patients starting AR among Swiss, German, and Austrian urologists. A total of 176 urologists returned the completed questionnaire, yielding a response rate of 11.7%. Of the respondents, 44.9% (n = 79) and 24.4% (n = 43) stated that they give more than five first-time prescriptions of denosumab and of intravenous or oral bisphosphonates per year, respectively. Only 14.8% (n = 26) of the participating urologists had never encountered MRONJ cases related to BPs. Of the participants, 89.8% (n = 158) had implemented referrals to dentists for oral examination before initiating AR. The mean percentage of correct answers regarding the knowledge about MRONJ was 70.9% ± 11.2%. In contrast to previous surveys on MRONJ among physicians, this study showed that the participating urologists were sufficiently informed about MRONJ, as reflected by the high number of participants implementing preventive dental screenings.