Inflammation possibly arises from ascending infection in a normal gland and exerts an obstructive and destructive effect on the parenchyma with the development of the related histological changes and a vicious circle involving further ascending infection. Normal glands contain microliths that possibly by localized obstruction cause atrophic foci that are reservoirs for ascending infection. Microliths and liths were unrelated: microliths were related to age as in normal glands whereas liths were related to duration of symptoms and appeared to be secondary to the sialadenitis. Many glands showed minimal changes, which raises the possibility of conservative treatment.

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An interactive suite of chained programs is described for recording, measuring, and analysing a large number of longitudinal cephalometric records. The programs are arranged in a logical sequence, and integrated with the hardware, to ensure a smooth and automatic running of the system from data collection to data analysis. The results of the analysis can be presented in suitable numerical and/or graphical forms to show individual as well as mean growth profiles.

This paper describes the configuration and evaluation of a CCD-based biostereometric system at the Department of Orthodontics, Kings College Dental Hospital, London. The system has been designed to allow rapid and accurate measurement of facial soft-tissue shape with a minimum of traditional photogrammetric training. This has been achieved by automatic camera calibration and stereo matching, performed on a Sun Microsystem 3/160 workstation. In summary, the characteristics of the system are: (a) non-contract three-dimensional (3D) measurement of soft-tissue; (b) de-skilled, requiring little or no photogrammetric training; (c) rapid data acquisition, combined with slower off-line processing; (d) processing of resulting 3D surface information to yield cross-sections; (e) surface measurement accurate to within 0.5 mm. Accuracy assessment was performed using a manual electromechanical non-contact measurement device with precision exceeding the requirement of the biostereometric system.

Tests were carried out with an on-line travelling microscope to determine its performance in the measurement of dental casts. The results show the system to be more accurate than the current alternatives.