Twenty-nine patients with Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma had their saliva tested.  In 23 out of the 29, elevated levels of interlukin-6 was identified compared with control subjects.  The interlukin-6 levels were continuously monitored during the cancer treatment and the levels were found to diminish during the treatment regimen.  This measurement of saliva can become a new way to predict the presence of oral cancer which is often difficult to find.

The first nationwide study on the true expanse and cost of periapical abscesses has recently been done.  The Nationwide Inpatient Sample of the Cost and Utilization Project for 2007 was completed and its results analyzed.

The results were quite amazing:

1.     7,886 people were hospitalized solely for the presence of periapical abscesses.

2.     The total hospital charges were $105.8 million for their treatment.

3.     The periapical abscesses resulted in 23,001 hospitalization days.

4.     The mean hospitalization charges were $13,590 and the average stay was 2.92 days.

5.     The percentage of emergency patients were significantly higher in patients without insurance than with private insurance.

Although dental implants are a reliable treatment modality, they do have a failure rate.  This exact failure rate is difficult to determine because the definition of implant failure has not reached a concensus.  However, two definite factors that define failure is the presence of factors such as excessive mobility and the presence of infection that require the removal of the implant.  In this study, 573 patients had implants placed and, of these, 60 required removal.

In the study, many factors were studied as for their role in causing the failure.  One of these factors was determined to be the anatomic position of the placement.  The study found that the anatomic position at which implants most often fail is the maxillary first molar.  Forty percent of the failures occurred in this site.