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Introduction: Osteomyelitis of the jaws is a common disease of the maxillofacial region. The goal of treatment is to alleviate pain, reduce infection, inhibit the progression of the disease and induce bone and mucosal healing. In addition to surgical management and antibiotic and oxygen hyperbaric therapy, new therapeutic strategies for the treatment of osteomyelitis are developed. One of the novel approaches is photobiomodulation therapy or low-level light therapy (LLLT). Materials and Methods: After surgical treatment, experimental group patients (n = 4) were treated with LLLT for five sessions with an extraoral pulsed 635-nm LED lamp (Repuls7, Repuls Lichtmedizintechnik GmbH, Austria), maximum output power: 140 mW/cm2, frequency: 2.5 Hz, duty cycle: 50%. Clinical achievement and patient pain perception (through Visual Analogue Scale score) were evaluated at 1-, 3- and 6-month follow-up appointments and compared with control group (n = 4) patients, treated with standard therapy. Results: At three and six months, clinical achievement was better in patients treated with LLLT. Pain and discomfort resolution was significantly greater in the experimental group. Discussion: Taking into consideration the results of this study, it can be concluded that LLLT shows potential for improving clinical outcome of surgical and medical treatment of secondary chronic osteomyelitis of the jaws. Furthermore, pain and discomfort were significantly reduced in patients treated with LLLT. Further research with a larger sample size is needed to obtain a more accurate insight into this promising field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Burning mouth syndrome (BMS) is an intraoral burning or dysaesthetic sensation, recurring daily for more than two hours during the period longer than 3 months. The objective was to evaluate and analyse the efficacy of serotonin reuptake inhibitor fluoxetine on psychological factors, as well as on pain in participants with BMS.Methods: In a 6-month study, 100 participants with primary and secondary BMS were divided into two groups-fluoxetine and control (placebo) and examined by the dentist and the neurologist. Depression and anxiety were estimated by Hamilton Scale for Depression (HAM-D) and Anxiety (HAM-A) and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the pain intensity by visual analogue scale (VAS).Results: Mean age of the participants was 60.33 in fluoxetine group and 67.4 in control group. Most of the participants were female-74% in the fluoxetine and 78% in the control group. Statistical difference between the fluoxetine and the control group was found in HAM-D results (P < .05). Values of other scales and VAS decreased significantly after the therapy in both groups (P < .05).Conclusions: Our trial results indicate that fluoxetine therapy not only improves the psychological status of participants with BMS but also fluoxetine decreases the intensity of pain in these patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to assess whether polymorphisms in toll-like receptor ( TLR) and cluster of differentiation 14 ( CD14) genes are associated with oral lichen planus ( OLP) risk and clinical course of the disease. The study group consisted of 101 patients with confirmed OLP and 104 healthy blood donors without systemic or oral mucosal diseases. Single nucleotide polymorphisms of TLR2 (rs3804099), TLR3 (rs3775291 and rs5743312), TLR4 (rs4986790 and rs4986791), and CD14 (rs2569190) genes were genotyped using real-time PCR or PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism ( PCR- RFLP). The rs5743312 TLR3 gene polymorphism was associated with increased OLP risk in comparison with the wild type genotype ( OR = 15.984, P = 0.011). No association with OLP risk was observed for the polymorphisms studied in TLR2, TLR4 and CD14 genes or for the rs3775291 polymorphism of the TLR3 gene. The polymorphisms of the TLR3 gene were in linkage disequilibrium ( D′ = 1, r2 = 0.1). Identified haplotypes were not associated with the risk of OLP. The findings of the current study suggest that the TT genotype of the rs5743312 TLR3 gene polymorphism may play a significant role in the aetiology of OLP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Burning mouth syndrome (BMS) is an intraoral burning sensation for which no medical or dental cause can be found. Recent studies suggest that primary neuropathic dysfunction might be involved in the pathogenesis of BMS. Calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) plays an important role in the development of pain and serves as a biological marker of trigeminovascular activation. The aim of this study was to determine the levels of CGRP in the saliva of BMS patients and estimate the trigeminovascular activation in BMS. CGRP levels were measured, by RIA method in 78 BMS patients and 16 healthy subjects. The levels of CGRP were non-significantly decreased in BMS patients in comparison to healthy subjects. These results suggest that trigeminal nerve degeneration may be the underlying cause of BMS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars and legal officials have argued that courts should not attempt to write definitive historical accounts of mass human rights violations. Even if a court seeks to reconstruct a comprehensive history of a conflict, law and history use such different modes of thinking and inquiry that legal accounts are likely to be partial, deeply flawed, or just plain boring. These criticisms have appeared prominently in discussions of Holocaust trials in the domestic courts of Israel and France. Yet the Tadić and Krstić judgments written by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) are characterized by detailed contextualization of criminal acts and extensive historical interpretation. This Article asserts that the Tribunal's historical record represents a departure from previous courtroom accounts of mass atrocities for two reasons. First, because it is an international tribunal it has been less influenced by distorted narratives on national identity. Second, the ICTY has applied legal categories such as genocide which emphasize the collective nature of crimes against humanity, and this compels the court to situate individual acts within long-term, systematic policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]