Patients with SMF have increased DNA damage and elevated levels of lipid peroxidation compared with healthy controls. Evaluation of MDA levels as an oxidative biomarker along with comet assay analysis will serve as a diagnostic tool to identify patients with high risk of malignant potential in SMF.

Background:This study aims to evaluate the knowledge, attitude, practice behaviors among general dental practitioners and assess the perception toward oral health by pregnant patients in and around Puducherry.Methodology:A self-designed and structured questionnaire was used to obtain information from the dental practitioner and the pregnant patients.Results:The majority of the dental practitioners had a lack of knowledge, attitude, practice behaviors regarding pregnant patient's oral health and similarly majority of pregnant patient's perception toward oral health was poor.Conclusions:Drowning and dilemmatic attitude and practice behavior of dentists to be streamlined to render right care to the pregnant women at the right time. Perplexing perception toward oral health care by pregnant women to be overcome to orient them to understand the impact of oral health on their general systemic health.

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Tobacco and betel quid are the most common cause of oral cancer in India. Very often oral cancers are preceded by a visible oral precursor lesion called as potentially malignant disorder (PMD). Aim: The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of oral PMDs associated with habits in urban and rural areas of Puducherry Union territory, India. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study in urban and rural areas of Puducherry was conducted. The study group comprised of 450 patients with positive history of oral habits. A standard structured questionnaire was designed to record information about demographic details, socioeconomic status, type, duration and frequency of habits followed by clinical oral examination by single trained and calibrated examiner to detect the presence of PMD. Statistical analysis used: EpiData software (version 3.1). Descriptive statistics were presented for all variables. Pearson’s Chi-Square test and adjusted odds ratio (ORs) with 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated to estimate the suspected risk factors for PMD by using multivariate logistic regression analysis. P-value of ≤ 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Results: Prevalence of habit associated oral PMD was 64.2%. Females were more prone to develop PMDs (68.3%) as compared to males (62.8%). PMD was more common in the age group of 51-60 years (69.2%). Smoking with alcohol consumption was the most common oral habit. Habits, socio-economic status and diet were significantly associated with development of oral PMDs in our study population. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that chronic betel quid chewing and smoking were significant risk factors for PMD. Increased frequency of vegetable consumption reduced the risk of PMD. Conclusions: Oral PMD were observed in more than half of the subjects with oral habits in Puducherry. Clearly, there is an increased risk of PMD with increased duration of tobacco and betel quid use in this region. Patients and public need to be educated regarding PMD and encouraged to quit habits so as to prevent high risk population from developing cancer.

Background: Oral leukoplakia (OL) is a potentially malignant disorder seen in tobacco users. Salivary biomarkers such as salivary sialic acid which is significantly high in OL and oral cancer serves as a potent biomarker for early diagnosis thereby improving prognosis. Aim: To estimate and compare salivary sialic acid levels in tobacco users with and without OL. Methods: The study included 172 tobacco users reporting to Private Dental Teaching Hospital, aged between 20 and 70 years, selected according to inclusion and exclusion criteria and divided into two groups. Study group included 76 patients with OL and control group, 96 patients without OL. Unstimulated whole saliva was collected and salivary sialic acid levels were estimated and the results were subjected to statistical analysis (unpaired students t-test). Results: The mean range of salivary sialic acid in controls was 1.898 ± 0.289 µmol/L and cases was 2.680 ± 0.189 µmol/L. Salivary sialic levels are high in cases when compared with controls with a statistically significant P < 0.001*. Conclusion:The results of our study clearly indicate that salivary sialic acid levels are significantly raised in patients with OL when compared with patients without OL. With the observations of our study salivary sialic acid proves to be a sensitive, specific, and cost-effective biomarker for OL.