Aims and Objectives: (1) To evaluate the role of ultrasonography with colour Doppler in the diagnosis of fascial space infections, (2) To determine the nature, size and extent of the odontogenic infections which involve the primary and secondary fascial spaces of the maxilla and the mandible (3) To evaluate the sensitivity of ultrasonography in determining whether the inflammatory process is in a stage of cellulitis or abscess and to thus determine the appropriate time for a surgical intervention during the course of the infection and to correlate the clinical and radiographic findings with the ultrasonographic findings and (4) to determine the treatment plan.Methodology: Thirty four patients with odontogenic infections which involved the superficial and the deep fascial spaces of the head and neck were subjected to ultrasonographic examinations over the suspected area in the transverse and axial directions to determine the stage of the infection, its anatomic location and the treatment plan.Results: Ultrasonography showed 95.7% sensitivity and 100% specificity as compared to the clinical and radiographic diagnoses and it proved to be an effective investigation modality in the diagnosis of fascial space infections. Conclusion:The addition of ultrasonography to the clinical and radiographic examinations provides a high sensitivity and a specificity and it also increases the accuracy of the diagnosis of odontogenic space infections.

No abstract

Early detection of oral cancer is significantly potential with noninvasive methods like salivary analysis which is of utmost importance to reduce the risk rate of advanced stage.As there is paucity in studies performing clinicopathological staging and grading of precancerous and cancerous conditions, this study prompted us to evaluate salivary sialic acid in patients with different clinico pathological stages of oral leukoplakia and oral squamous cell carcinoma in order to develop cost effective,simple diagnostic method. Unstimulated salivary sample for the present study comprised a total of 20 healthy controls (Group I), 20 Oral leukoplakia patients(Group II) and 20 oral squamous cell carcinoma patients(Group III). Estimation of salivary sialic acid levels (free and protein bound) were performed by using Ultra violet visible Spectrophotometer. This was correlated with the clinicopathological staging and grading of oral leukoplakia and oral squamous cell carcinoma. The stastical comparisons were performed by analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by student's paired t-test and f test. Sialic acid (free & protein bound) levels were significantly increased in oral squamous cell carcinoma patients and oral leukoplakia patients compared to controls. Protein bound Salivary sialic acid was significantly increased in OSCC when compared with oral leukoplakia patients. Significant higher levels of free sialic acid and protein bound sialic acid was found in well-differentiated OSCC cases when compared to other two grades. Salivary parameters offer scope for detailed future research on their applications in screening, diagnosis, and management of cancer. Sialic acid is a sensitive marker of oral cancer. Elevated levels of free and protein-bound salivary sialic acid in leukoplakia and oral cancer patients indicate its importance as a tumor marker.

Radiographs have been widely used in dentistry for various reasons such as diagnosis, treatment planning, during the treatment procedures and assessment of treatment outcome. In our routine dental practice dentists practice intraoral radiography in their clinics. The radiograph when made immediately in the dental chair is a real-time diagnostic aid but the dentist should also confirm whether he/she follows all the guidelines and safety precautions of radiation safety while exposing the patient to X-rays so that the deleterious effects of X-rays can be avoided which will be beneficial to both the patient and especially the dentists who have long term exposure to X-rays. Hence in this article we have emphasized on the safety precautions to be followed by the dentists and also the awareness each of us should possess towards the hazards of radiation.