Oral medicine is an area of dentistry which is constantly changing. Over the past several years Oral medicine has expanded in both scope and complexity. Oral medicine involves the diagnosis and management of complex diagnostic and medical disorders affecting the mouth and jaws. Current decade has witnessed enormous advances in the diagnostic oral medicine, which have moved from the laboratory to the dental clinics and hospitals. It is important that these advances do not remain as domain of the specialists in this field. Every general dental practitioner should be aware of recent advances in diagnostic oral medicine in order to provide a high level of care. This paper discusses the recent technological advances in the field of oral medicine that have made an impact on clinical dental practice.

Objectives : Orofacial manifestations (OFMs) are seen early in the course of HIV disease in children and can also act as indicators for the presence of the disease. The objective of the study were to find the prevalence of OFMs of HIV in infected children, co-relate them with their CD4 counts and establish whether OFMs could be used as markers for disease progression. Materials and Methods : Using the diagnostic criteria recommended by the European Collaborative Clearinghouse (ECC) on oral problems related to HIV infection and WHO Collaborating Centre on oral manifestations of the HIV, 48 HIV-infected children were examined at the baseline and their CD4 counts were obtained. A follow-up was conducted 6 months later. Chi-Square test was used to analyse the data obtained. Results : OFM showed a high prevalence in HIV-infected children. The degree of immunosuppression was found to co-relate with the presence of OFMs. But, it could not be established that the presence of OFMs could be a marker for HIV disease progression. Conclusion : The results of our study indicated a high prevalence of OFMs in HIV-infected South Indian children. A decline in CD4 counts was found to be associated with more number of OFMs. However, we were unable to establish OFMs as markers for HIV disease progression. The sample size in our study being about 48 patients and the variability in the initiation and duration of HAART therapy, use of other drugs not being considered, may have an influence on the result of our study. Larger population groups, with parameters such as nutritional status and HAART initiation included, can probably give a more conclusive result..

Ameloblastoma of jaws are common and locally destructive tumors originating from odontogenic apparatus. They constitute approximately 1% of all jaw tumors with 80% occurring in the mandible. Ameloblastoma exhibiting a frank malignancy is a rare entity and occurs in less than 1% of all ameloblastomas. Among the two jaws, ameloblastic carcinoma involving maxilla is extremely rare with only few cases reported so far in the literature. Here we report two cases of ameloblastic carcinoma one involving the maxilla and the other involving mandible, with an aggressive clinical course leading to extensive local destruction of the affected jaws.

Botryoid odontogenic cyst is an unusual type of cyst. It was first reported by Weathers and Waldron in 1973. It is simply a polycystic variant of the lateral periodontal cyst developing through cystic transformation of multiple islands of dental lamina rests. A case of botryoid odontogenic cyst in a 35-year -old female patient with its clinical, radiological and histopathological presentation is reported.

Primary intraosseous carcinoma (PIOC) is a rare malignant neoplasm of the jaw which is locally aggressive with poor prognosis. These tumors are believed to arise from the odontogenic epithelium and hence are referred to as odontogenic carcinomas. Till date, 47 cases have been reported in the English literature. Herein, we report a case of PIOC of mandible in a 65-year-old male patient. This article discusses the importance of detailed clinical and histological examination and review of various aspects of PIOC and updates the literature.

Tuberculosis is a common infectious disease that is caused by mycobacteria, primarily Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis most commonly affects the lungs. Tongue tuberculosis is very rarely described in the literature. Tongue tuberculosis can be primary with no evidence of involvement of other organs, especially the lungs, or, more commonly, secondary to pulmonary tuberculosis. The occurrence of tuberculosis of tongue as a primary lesion is quite rare and invariably the condition is associated with pulmonary or laryngeal tuberculosis. In this article, a 58-year-old male reported to us with two months history of a painful ulcerated lesion on his tongue and respiratory symptoms. Chest radiograph showed bilateral infiltrates and multiple cavities in the upper and middle lung fields. Tongue biopsy revealed granuloma, which is typical for tuberculosis, and his sputum smear was positive for acid fast bacilli. The patient was started on a regimen of isoniazide, rifampicine, pyrazinamide and ethambutol. The tongue completely healed within a month. In conclusion, tuberculosis should be taken into consideration in differential diagnosis of chronic ulcerative tongue lesions.

Osteochondroma, also known as osteocartilaginous exostosis, is a benign cartilage capped outgrowth attached to the underlying skeleton by a short stalk. Osteochondroma is frequently seen in the axial skeleton but rarely occurs in the craniofacial skeleton. We report a case of osteochondroma arising from the right mandibular condyle.

Desmoplastic ameloblastoma (DA) is a rare variant of ameloblastoma. One hundred and forty-five cases of desmoplastic ameloblastoma have been reported till 2007 in the literature. This article presents a rare case of desmoplastic ameloblastoma in the parasymphysial region. Review of the literature has revealed that the tumor most commonly occurs in the third to fifth decade of life, with a male predilection of 3:2. The anterior region of the maxilla is the part that is most commonly found to be affected. The radiological features reveal a mixed radiolucent-radiopaque lesion with poorly defined to well-defined borders. However, our case differed from the reviewed cases, as it was found to be with well-defined borders. The histological findings of the case were consistent with the histological appearance of the reviewed cases and showed extensive stromal desmoplasia and small tumor nests of odontogenic epithelium scattered in the stroma.

The importance of waste disposal management is a very essential and integral part of any health care system. Health care providers have been ignorant or they did not essentially know the basic aspect of the importance and effective management of hospital waste.This overview of biomedical waste disposal/management gives a thorough insight into the aspects of the guidelines to be followed and adopted according to the international WHO approved methodology for a cleaner, disease-free, and healthier medical services to the populace, i.e., to the hospital employees, patients, and society.