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The existential problems encountered by elderly patients are influenced by a series of parameters (physical, medical, psychological, or social) that make it difficult for them to carry out normal activities and can amplify the pathology of this fragile population category. Dental caries is quite common in the elderly patient, although we are tempted to believe that elderly teeth are less susceptible to caries due to involutional structural changes. As a chronic, slowly evolving infectious process with certain peculiarities, dental caries progresses in densified and hypermineralised tissues, both at coronal level but prevalent at root level. Clinically in the early stage the initial lesion appears on the proximal, buccal, or oral surface at the enamel/cement junction as one or more small, creamy, brownish, round, elliptical or fissural dots or spots (pigmentations) which merge, tend to expand, become circular, surround the root and encompass all surfaces closely forming serpiginous caries. Tending to progress circumferentially on the surface and not in depth, it causes weakening of the crown-root junction, with significant dental destruction, with splinter-like detachment of tissue, with increased risk of fracture. Dental medicine must consider the elderly as a complex being, an entity with a specific bio-psycho-social structure, with an individualised pathology of the dental system arising from physiological involution.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is one of the main chronic inflammatory rheumatic disorders characterized by chronic destructive peripheral arthritis as well as a wide range of systemic features, resulting in irreversible damage, significant disability, functional impairment and altered quality of life. Clinical temporomandibular joint (TMJ) involvement is commonly reported in up to 80% of RA patients. Although conventional radiological examination remains an important tool for diagnosis and assessment of TMJ disease, newer modern techniques including TMJ ultrasound, CT and cone beam CT (CBCT) are largely available and able to depict earlier changes in the TMJ. This report presents the clinical case of an established RA, emphasizing the potential diagnostic algorithm and therapeutic options for TMJ arthritis

The main aims of this paper were (i) to identify the pathology that occurs in the dentist’s hand in relation to different professional risk factors, particularly the trapezio-metacarpal osteoarthritis – a painful and highly disabling entity related to subluxation or dislocation complications, and (ii) to highlight the role of kinetotherapy for the prevention as well as therapy of the dentist’s hand. We enrolled twenty experienced dentists selected according to several inclusion criteria: a daily program of minimum 6 working hours, more than 15 years of professional experience, performing all techniques and procedures commonly encountered in a dental office. Dentists included in our research were classified in two main groups: group A performing an individual kinetotherapy program and group B without the kinetic program. Individualized kinetic programs aiming to reduce pain, restore joint mobility, tone different muscle groups and improve coordination are successful in refining work-related hand pathology in dentists.

Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) is widely involved in rheumatic disorders, especially in inflammatory but also in degenerative conditions. The burden of TMJ osteoarthritis is related to both soft and hard tissue damage meaning cartilage, subchondral bone and, to a lesser extent, synovial membrane involvement resulting in a wide range of clinical signs and symptoms and significant disability. The diagnosis of degenerative TMJ disease is challenging comprising a comprehensive algorithm based on both clinical as well as imaging techniques from simple radiology to newer ones such as cone beam computer tomography.