Oral diseases play a serious challenge to public health around the world. When left untreated, both the mouth and also the remaining the body would be adversely affected by oral diseases. Different treatment modalities are available for various dental diseases, but the most downside of those modern drug treatments are the frequent side effects related to their use. This has contributed to renewing interest in the development of novel plant-derived anti-infective natural compounds. Curcumin is an anti-inflammatory agent that occurs naturally, with different biological and medicinal properties. It has proven anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antimicrobial, hepato-protective, immuno-stimulant, antiseptic, and anti-mutagenic properties. Due to these properties, it is especially useful in dentistry for the treatment of periodontal diseases and oral cancers. Turmeric can also be utilized in alternative treatments as a pit and fissure sealant, mouthwash and subgingival irrigant. Its gel form can even be used as a local drug delivery system. It is evaluated with a view to mitigate the human diseases, particularly in cancer and its potential to reduce cancer risk. Curcumin has only negligible side effects such as diarrhoea, diarrhoea, allergic skin reaction, gastric pain. The objective of this article is to review the efficacy and therapeutic properties of curcumin in maintaining oral health.

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Introduction: Skin cancers, such as melanoma, basal cell carcinoma, and squamous cell carcinoma, frequently begin as changes in the skin. Cancer research continues to focus on finding tumor-selective and new anticancer drugs with fewer adverse effects. Digera muricata is a medicinal herb in the Amaranthaceae family that has antibacterial, antifungal, free radical scavenging function, anti tumor, and other valuable medicinal properties. Aim: To investigate the pro-apoptotic effect of Digera muricata leaf extract against the skin cancer cell line. Materials and Methods: MTT assay was used to determine the viability of B16-F10 cells treated with different concentrations (20-200μg) of Digera muricata leaf extract. Phase contrast microscopy was used to examine the morphological changes. In addition, the mode of cell death was assessed using AO/EtBr dual staining and observed under a fluorescence microscope. Statistical analysis was performed, keeping the level of significance at p<0.05. Results: The MTT assay revealed that the ethanolic extract of Digera muricata leaf had significant cytotoxic and apoptotic potency against the B16-F10 skin cancer cell line, which was validated by significant morphological alterations under phase contrast microscope after 24 hours of treatment. AO/EtBr dual staining results clearly showed the Digera muricata leaf extract treatment induced the early apoptotic cells with bright orange areas of condensed or fragmented chromatin in the nucleus. Late apoptotic cells showing uniform bright red nucleus. Conclusion: Within the limits of the analysis, it can be inferred that the leaf extract of Digera muricata was cytotoxic and triggered cancer cell apoptosis at a concentration of 50 μg/ml within 24 hours. More research is needed to understand the cytotoxicity mechanisms of this plant extract.

Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is the most common form of cancer with an incidence rate greater in male than in female. Advancements in molecular diagnostics have identified several pathways which can have a direct or indirect role in the development and progression of HNSCC. The PRAME (PReferentially Antigen expressed in MElanoma) gene family is yet another group of genes which has been recently implicated in HNSCC. The present study aims to identify the genetic alterations, the pattern of gene expression and the consequence of mutations in the PRAME family of genes in HNSCC patients. Several databases such as cBioportal, gnomAD, IMutant, PROVEAN were used to assess genetic alterations. The alterations included deep deletions, amplification, inframe, missense, truncating mutations. The gene showing the highest frequency of alteration (PRAME - 3%) was further assessed for its gene expression profile using the UALCAN database. The expression profile relative to normal samples was found to be significantly higher in HNSCC patients (p = 1.11 x 10-16). Further, the survival curve based on high and low/medium expression of the PRAME gene was assessed by Kaplan-Meier method. The analysis revealed a significant difference in the survival rate of patients with high and low/medicum level expression (0.0095). In addition, the high level expression was found to be associated with poor survival rate in HNSCC patients compared to those exhibiting low and medium level expression. In conclusion the study provides insights into the putative association of genes of the PRAME family with HNSCC. The preliminary results have to be further validated using experimental procedures.

Introduction: Pulpitis is a debilitating inflammation of the pulp of the tooth. Bacteria infiltrate the pulp of the tooth, causing it to swell. It may affect one or more teeth. Pulpitis comes in two varieties - acute and chronic. Chronic pulpitis is a long-term inflammation of the pulp tissue that results in permanent  damage to the reliability of the pulp tissue. Aim: To assess the prevalence of chronic pulpitis among 13 to 17 year old pediatric patients visiting the private dental institution in Chennai. Materials and Methods: Case sheets of patients were obtained from Record management system software for analysis. Patients with chronic pulpitis within the age group 13 to 17 were selected and the sample size was found to be n = 165 patients. The collected data was then tabulated for statistical analysis using SPSS. Results: From the results obtained in our study , chronic pulpitis was most prevalent in females with age of 16 particularly in mandibular molars  (16.97% in 36 and 13.94% in 46). Conclusion: Within the limitations of the study it can be concluded that mandibular molars were commonly affected due to chronic pulpitis and by knowing the prevalence and pathophysiology of chronic pulpitis, dental clinicians can prevent the progression of this condition.