Dental pathology remains a global health problem affecting both children and adults. The most important dental diseases are dental caries and periodontal pathologies. The main cause of oral health problems is overpopulation with pathogenic bacteria and for this reason, conventional therapy can often be ineffective due to bacterial resistance or may have unpleasant side effects. For that reason, studies in the field have focused on finding new therapeutic alternatives. Special attention is paid to the plant kingdom, which offers a wide range of plants and active compounds in various pathologies. This review focused on the most used plants in the dental field, especially on active phytocompounds, both in terms of chemical structure and in terms of mechanism of action. It also approached the in vitro study of active compounds and the main types of cell lines used to elucidate the effect and mechanism of action. Thus, medicinal plants and their compounds represent a promising and interesting alternative to conventional therapy.

The present study was aimed to evaluate the confluence percentage of three oral cell lines, namely primary gingival keratinocytes (PGK), primary gingival fibroblasts (HGF) and tongue squamous cell carcinoma (SCC-4). All cells have been monitored at different passages for 21 days. Evaluation of confluence percentage reveals the fact that primary gingival keratinocytes and tongue squamous cell carcinoma at small passages requires a period of about two weeks to reach a confluence of approximately 80% while for the gingival fibroblasts a period of about three times smaller is satisfactory.

The dentition goes through a complex process of development, a process that can be influenced by internal and external factors. Our study was perfomed on a group of 1673 children from different areas in Bihor county. The uranium mining exploitation in this specific area is very popular, but with an unfortunate consequence: pollution. This factor has had a great impact upon the workers, but also the surrounding areas. The aim of the present epidemiological study is to evaluate the incidence of dental anomalies upon the targeted group and to identify the correlation between the impact of the pollution upon the development of the dentition. All the data was obtained during a clinical examination, documented and afterwards statistically analyzed. Our study concluded that the examined subjects presented with a high percentage of structural dental anomalies, with an average incidence in the polluted areas that can be explained by the interactions that occur and the influence of the radioactive substances upon the development.

This present study aimed to assess the influence of different chemical compounds which are commonly found in the composition of products used for oral hygiene on primary gingival keratinocyte, human gingival fibroblast and tongue squamous cell carcinoma behaviour. Chlorhexidine (Chx), aspartame (Asp), xylitol (Xyl) and sodium bicarbonate (NaB) were evaluated in an in vitroresearch regarding cells morphology and cytotoxicity. Primary gingival keratinocytes (PGK)and fibroblasts (HGF)treated with different concentration of the tested compounds did not show significant changes, nor related to morphology nor related to viability at the lowest concentrations used ([ 25�M). In contrast, the tumor cells were affected by the test compounds, especially xylitol and sodium bicarbonate, both in terms of morphology and cytotoxicity, at concentrations over 5�M.