Lasers and the treatment of periodontitis: the essence and the noise

The dental literature contains 25 years of accumulated reports and clinical studies addressing the utility of lasers in the treatment of periodontitis, both as a monotherapy or as an adjunct to surgical and nonsurgical therapy. Yet, the evidence from the 118 human clinical studies cited in this narrative review remains conflicted and insufficient to suggest that integration of a laser in a periodontal treatment protocol will provide antimicrobial and healing outcomes superior to those achieved by traditional therapy. When viewed as a collective body of evidence, it becomes apparent that a majority of the studies are underpowered and exhibit significant heterogeneity in design. Furthermore, the collected studies report a varied choice of parameters, even within the same wavelength of laser. There is little uniformity between studies in the reporting of measured clinical parameters. Most studies reported 3‐ and/or 6‐month post‐treatment results; however, the range of time intervals includes studies reporting results from 1 week to up to 1–12 months or longer. Lastly, many studies were considered at risk for bias as a result of a lack of examiner masking and/or calibration. There is great need for well‐designed, highly controlled multicenter clinical trials that are adequately powered in terms of subject enrollment, that use similar protocols in terms of laser parameters and that report measureable outcomes in a uniform manner. Without such studies, the questions surrounding the use of lasers in the treatment of periodontal disease will persist.     

常用国产、进口正畸托槽的槽沟宽度精度及表面光洁度的比较

目的比较临床常用的国产金属直丝弓托槽和进口金属直丝弓托槽槽沟宽度及其精度、槽沟近远中截面光洁度和结扎翼光洁度。方法采用施奈德坐标测量仪对4种国产金属直丝弓托槽和4种进口金属直丝弓托槽放大30倍后进行测量。结果国产托槽和进口托槽槽沟的近、远中宽度均有良好的一致性,但国产托槽和进口托槽槽沟宽度普遍大于设计值;进口托槽槽沟近远中端截面的光洁度优于国产托槽,国产托槽结扎翼表面光洁度已达到进口托槽结扎翼表面光洁度水平。结论绝大部分国产和进口直丝弓金属托槽槽沟宽度较设计值大,个别品牌托槽槽沟宽度显著大于设计值。国产和进口金属托槽结扎翼表面均有较好的抛光度,但国产托槽槽沟内的抛光工艺尚待提高。     

Freckles and dysplasias of the eyebrows as indicators for genetic abnormalities of the development of the teeth and the jaws

For the first time the frequency of freckles and of dysplasias of the eyebrows was examinated in 756 pupils. The percentage of the freckles was 21, and of the dysplasias of the eyebrows 28.5 in both sexes. The following examination of 287 orthodontic patients (66 males with hypodontia, 60 males with normal number of the teeth; 92 females with hypodontia, 69 females with normal number of the teeth) has demonstrated the high significance of incidence of freckles and of dysplasias of the eyebrows in patient with hypodontia. This phenomenon is important, because extraoral stigmatas can indicate to disturbances of the development of teeth and also to anomalies of the number of the teeth.