زهرا رنجبر

Assessing the common oral lesions and their prevalence is important in different populations. This study assessed the prevalence of oral vascular lesions in patients referred to the Oral Medicine Department of Shiraz Dental School.  

In this cross-sectional study which was conducted in Shiraz Dental School, records of patients admitted from 2001 to 2017 were reviewed. A total of 176 patients had been diagnosed with oral vascular lesions. The mean age and gender of patients and the prevalence of vascular lesions were recorded and analyzed. Associations between the variables were explored using the Chi-square test and Kruskal-Wallis test. P<0.05 was considered statistically significant.

  A total of 176 patients had oral vascular lesions among 3,896 clinical patient records during the 16-year period (2001-2017). Of the 176 patients, 108 (61.4%) were females and 68 (38.6%) were males. The mean age at presentation was 36 ±4.5 years with an overall age range of 4-88 years. Amongst all the evaluated oral lesions, the most prevalent vascular lesion was pyogenic granuloma with 124 (3.18%) patients. Other vascular lesions were vascular malformations (n=27, 0.7%), hemangioma (n=19, 0.49%), and lymphangioma (n=6, 0.15%). There was no significant correlation between gender with vascular lesions (P=0.078) or location of lesions (P=0.143). No significant correlation was found between age with type of vascular lesion (P=0.174) or site of involvement (P=0.281).

  Among oral vascular lesions, pyogenic granuloma was found to be the most prevalent lesion in the oral cavity.

This study aimed to evaluate the relationship of diabetes mellitus (DM) and trigeminal neuralgia (TN) in order to provide new insight for TN pathogenesis.

This retrospective cross-sectional study compared the prevalence of DM in patients with TN and healthy controls without TN during 2007-2018. Totally, 193 participants were enrolled in the patient and control groups. These participants were selected among patients referred to the Oral and Maxillofacial Medicine Department of Dental School of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. The age and gender of patients were matched in the two groups. DM (types 1 and 2) was diagnosed based on patient reports and routinely requested lab tests (fasting blood sugar, 2-hour post-prandial). The odds ratio (OR) and Chi-square test were used to compare the mean values.

The prevalence of DM in TN patients and control group was 11.4% and 9.8%, respectively. The mean age of the participants was 56.96±13.66 and 56.46±13.47 years in the TN and control groups, respectively. The difference in TN prevalence between the two groups was not significant (P=0.62).

Although the prevalence of DM in patients with TN was higher than the control group, this difference was not significant (P>0.05). Women with TN showed DM 25% more than men with TN.

 Streptococcus mutans, Streptococcus sanguinis, and Streptococcus salivarius are most common etiologic bacteria for dental caries. Different sizes of gold nanoparticles may have different antibacterial effects on these species.

This study aimed to compare the antibacterial effect of chlorhexidine and three sizes of gold nano particles (25, 60, 90nm) against clinical and standard strains of Streptococcus mutans, Streptococcus sanguinis, and Streptococcus salivarius.

In this cross-sectional study, the specimens were collected from 75 children aged 3-5 years old. Antibacterial effect of chlorhexidine and three sizes of gold nano particles (25, 60, 90nm) were investigated by evaluating the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) against three bacterial strains.

The MIC and MBC of gold nanoparticles with different sizes against Streptococcus mutans, Streptococcus sanguinis, and Streptococcus salivarius were statistically different. The MIC and MBC of smaller gold nano particles (25nm) were significantly lower (p <0.001) than larger ones. Patient-derived bacteria had significantly higher values of MIC and MBC in comparison to standard species (p <0.001).

The results of this study confirmed the significant size-dependency of gold nano particles for antibacterial activity. As the size of gold nano particles decrease, the antibacterial properties enhance.

It is vital to ensure that dental services are provided for HIV-positive (+) patients.

This study was designed to evaluate dentists' knowledge, attitude, and practice towards HIV+ patients of Shiraz, Iran.

In this cross-sectional study, 120 general dentists of Shiraz were randomly selected. Dentists' knowledge and attitude about HIV oral manifestations and transmission, concerns and approach to HIV+ patients, and infection control in practice were assessed using a questionnaire translated in a backward-forward method. The dentists' real practice was assessed by sending simulated HIV+ patients to their practice two months later. The results were analyzed using the chi-square test and the spearman correlation.

The response rate was 85.8%, and 71.8% of the participants were male. The average age and work experience of the participants were 42 and 14 years, respectively. Dentists' knowledge about HIV oral manifestations and body fluids, which could transmit HIV, was 14% - 59% and 31% - 97%, respectively. Concern about the possibility of being infected during the treatment of HIV+ patients was the most important reason for the unwillingness to accept these patients. The percentages of dentists who claimed would accept HIV+ patients without hesitation, accept with hesitation if the patient insisted, refer, or reject immediately were 29, 31, 30, and 10, respectively. However, in reality, the observed percentages were 17.5, 0, 65, and 17.5, respectively.

Dentists' knowledge and attitude towards HIV+ patients and the acceptance of these patients were not desirable. Moreover, there was no significant correlation between their knowledge and attitude with their real practice.

Burning Mouth Syndrome (BMS) is a burning sensation of the oral mucosa without any sign of mucosal abnormality for which no medical or dental cause can be detected. However, this syndrome belongs to a broader category of patients whose main complaint is mouth burning and, so, their etiologies can largely vary.
This study investigates the prevalence of burning mouth symptom for the first time in an institutional group of patients in Shiraz, Iran, among whom some were found to have BMS through excluding the recognizable physical or biochemical causes of mouth burning.
In this cross sectional study, from the existing records of 2 533 patients who referred to Shiraz Dental School since 2007 To 2015, a total number of 298 patients with the chief complaint of oral burning sensation were chosen. For each patient age, sex, etiology, and site of pain were recorded.
Analysis revealed that amongst 298 individuals who suffered from burning sensation of the oral mucosa, the female/male ratio was 3 to 1; and local factors were found as the primary cause for the symptom development in a large proportion of the patients (63.5%). Followed by systemic diseases with a much less contribution to cause the symptom (22.8%). A number of 8.4% of the patients were idiopathic and 5.4% suffered from psychological disorders. Tongue was the most frequent location of burning (37.2%). Overall, only 25 patients ( The results of this study show that oral burning is mostly caused by the factors recognized during examination and that the idiopathic form or BMS known as a neuropathic pain is uncommon. Understanding the prevalence of the etiologic factors in certain populations would lead to a better diagnostic approach to BMS through the exclusion of those factors.