Stephanie Sammut

Facial cutaneous sinuses of dental origin - a diagnostic challenge.

It is common for practitioners to misdiagnose the cause of facial cutaneous sinus tracts, failing to recognise that many have an odontogenic cause. Chronic infection around the apex of a dental root can drain to the mouth or less commonly to the skin via a sinus tract. Dental symptoms are not always present and this confuses the clinical picture further. Failure to identify an odontogenic cause may result in unnecessary and ineffective treatment. Elimination of dental infection via tooth extraction or root canal treatment leads to resolution of the cutaneous sinus. We present a series of cutaneous draining sinuses of dental origin that resolved rapidly following dental treatment and hope to highlight the importance of including odontogenic infection in the differential diagnosis of such a lesion in the head and neck.

Predicting the choice of anaesthesia for third molar surgery – guideline or the easy-line?

Objective To observe trends in choice of anaesthetic for mandibular third molar surgery in the Combined Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and Oral Medicine, based at the Edinburgh Dental Institute (EDI) and St Johns Hospital (SJH) in Livingston.Method Data were collected retrospectively from electronic patient records for 301 consecutive new referrals for mandibular third molar surgery from general dental practitioners to each of the oral and maxillofacial departments in the EDI and SJH from the 1 September 2009 onwards. Date of consultation, grade of assessing clinician, age, gender, postcode, required surgical procedure, choice of anaesthetic and predicted difficulty of procedure were analysed.Results One hundred and fifty patients were seen at the EDI and 151 at SJH. There was no statistically significant difference in the proportion of male and female patients or age of patients presenting at each site. Seventeen patients (11.3%) were listed for a general anaesthetic, 21 (14%) for conscious intravenous sedation and 112 (74.7%) for local anaesthetic at EDI. At SJH 57 patients (37.7%) were listed for a general anaesthetic, 30 (19.9%) for conscious intravenous sedation and 64 (42.4%) for local anaesthetic. There was only a small difference in the difficulty of cases at the two sites, though there was a significant difference in socioeconomic deprivation between the two populations.Conclusions Significantly more general anaesthetics are being prescribed for mandibular third molar surgery at SJH than the EDI. This finding is not related to difficulty of the cases presenting at each site but may be related to the nature of a maxillofacial clinic compared to a dedicated oral surgery centre. The difference in socioeconomic deprivation may have had an impact on patient decisions.

Epidemiological study of alendronate-related osteonecrosis of the jaw in the southeast of Scotland

We aimed to establish the incidence of alendronate-related osteonecrosis of the jaw (ONJ) in the southeast of Scotland, and to assess the effect of corticosteroids on it. We studied a prospective case series of patients between June 2004 and March 2012 separated into steroid and non-steroid groups. There were 34 cases of alendronate-related ONJ and 78732 drug patient years (DPY) of alendronate, making the overall occurrence 43.1 cases/100000 DPY. There were 12 patients in the steroid group (mean (range) age 68.2 (48-87) years) making 42.5 cases/100000 DPY, and 22 in the non-steroid group (mean (range) age 76.2 (63-91) years) making 119.6 cases/100000 DPY. The mean (range) age at presentation of alendronate-related ONJ was significantly lower in the steroid group (68.2 (48-87) compared with 76.2 (63-91) years, p=0.019) as was the duration of exposure to alendronate before it developed (28.9 (6-120) compared with 61.3 (13-168) months, p=0.03). The overall incidence seems to be higher in the southeast of Scotland than elsewhere. Concurrent use of corticosteroids is not associated with an increased incidence of alendronate-related ONJ, but it seems to reduce the duration of exposure before it develops. Age is likely to be a confounding factor.

Necrotising sialometaplasia in the floor of mouth

IntroductionNecrotising sialometaplasia is a benign self-limiting inflammatory process which occurs in the salivary gland tissue. The condition is a diagnostic challenge mimicking malignancy both clinically and histopathologically. Commonly, it presents in the hard palate.Case reportHere, we report an unusual case in a 56-year-old man which presented in the floor of the mouth.