Objectives: To evaluate the efficacy of a topical anesthetic gel containing potassium nitrate, benzocaine and tetracaine in patients undergoing non surgical periodontal therapy. Materials and Methods: The present study was a randomised, double blind, placebo controlled, split mouth design trial carried out in 300 patients. Two quadrants in each patient were selected for non surgical periodontal therapy. The drug gel and placebo were liberally applied over the teeth and gingiva on the selected quadrants and the treatment was started after two minutes. Patients were asked to evaluate their pain experience at the end of treatment of their respective quadrants using verbal rating scale. Results: The mean pain score on using the drug gel was 0.433+0.737 as compared to the mean pain score of 2.35+0.761 on using the placebo gel, and the results were statistically significant. The drug gel out performed the placebo gel. None of the patients reported of any local or systemic side effects. Conclusions: The topical anesthetic gel provided excellent pain control for the patients undergoing non surgical periodontal therapy. It can also be considered as a good option during periodontal examination and maintenance visits to increase the patients comfort.

SUMMARYPyogenic granuloma (PG) is a well-known localised granulation tissue overgrowth. It remains an aetiopathological enigma, with trauma, inflammatory and infectious agents being the suspected causative factors. It is a relatively common benign mucocutaneous lesion occurring intraorally or extraorally and is more common in women in the second decade of their lives than in men. Although it is a common lesion it may present with varying clinical features that sometimes may mimic more serious lesions such as malignancies. The clinical diagnosis of such lesion can be quite challenging. This case report drives attention towards the uncommon location of PG of lobular capillary haemangioma type occurring on anterior palate. Surgical excision of the lesion was planned because of the discomfort attributed to large size of the lesion and hindrance in mastication. BACKGROUND

Objective: To compare and evaluate the effect of 0.2% chlorhexidine gluconate and commercially available herbal mouthrinse in reducing aerosolized bacteria when used as a preprocedural mouth rinse. Materials and methods: A total of 45 patients were selected and randomly divided into three equal groups. As the preprocedural rinse, patients belonging to group I, group II and group III rinsed with distilled water, 0.2% chlorhexidine mouthwash (Clohex®) and herbal mouthwash (Hiora®), respectively, for 60 seconds. Aerosols produced during the oral prophylaxis procedure were collected on blood agar plates by exposing the plates to the patient's and dentist's chest area, and the plates were incubated at 37°C under aerobic conditions for 48 h. The number of colony forming units (CFU) in the aerosol were counted and statistically analyzed. Results: At both the locations the mean CFU were highest in Group I followed by Group III and Group II. The 0.2% chlorhexidine gluconate mouthwash was superior in significantly reducing the aerosolized bacteria during scaling, followed by herbal mouthrinse and distilled water (p≤0.0001). Conclusions: The results of the present study clearly indicate that preprocedural rinsing with 0.2% chlorhexidine gluconate was significantly more effective than herbal mouthrinse in reducing the aerosolized bacteria during ultrasonic scaling. Therefore a preprocedural rinse can significantly reduce the risk for crosscontamination.

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Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is the most common malignant tumor of the oral cavity and is a potentially fatal disease that proved to be a bane to clinicians throughout the world. In spite of various treatment modalities to manage oral SCC, one key factor for the prognosis is the early detection. Over the past two decades, there has been a surge in the investigations conducted pertaining specifically to oral cancer. Therefore, the purpose of the current case report is to focus on the use of newer techniques like immunohistochemistry (IHC) which is a valuable tool in diagnosing cases with atypical presentation.