Field Of Oral Surgery Research Articles

Adjunct in surgical management of calcific aortic stenosis;the high-speed air-turbine drill.

THE SURGEON faced with the operative management of a calcified aortic valve composed of fused commissures and rigid cusps, usually chooses between prosthetic substitution and some form of debridement. With but few exceptions, debridement as usually practiced with rongeurs and curettes has proven less than satisfactory. We have found that an air-turbine drill is a valuable adjunct in debridement operations and is useful as well to prepare the calcified annulus for a prosthetic valve. The instrument has been used with 75 patients undergoing aortic valve surgery. Materials and Methods The Drill. —The high-speed, air-turbine drill was originally developed for use in the field of oral surgery.* The drill contains a small air turbine which is powered by compressed air delivered through a rubber tube at a pressure of 100 lb per square inch. The instrument is controlled by a foot pedal. The compressed air is passed through a millipore filter

Antihistamines and their value in allaying postoperative distress in the removal of impacted teeth

T HE general usefulness of histamine-antagonizing agents in the fleld of allergy is we]l established. ~ Further research, both pharmacologic and clinical, has led to many new and useful findings in other fields of medicine. In the field of oral surgery, alleviation of postoperative sequelae, swelling, pain, and trismus was observed tm patients being t~'eated concomitantly for S(mle allergic condition with antihistamines. This led to the assumption that histamine, released from the traumatized area by the damaged cells, was blocked by the action of the antihistamine drugsY With these observations, a new avenue of treatment was opened to research in the field of antihistamines. This article covers an investigation of the role of the antihistamines in the alleviation o[ postoperative swelling, trismus, pain, and nausea due to th(: removal ot! intpae~,d teeth.

Hullihen, the oral surgeon

Summary The trend of the medical and dental professions toward an understanding of oral lesions, malformations, and diseases has progressed mainly because of vigorous research activities, supported by monies from appropriations, direct gifts, and endowment funds. The dental school of today has a faculty composed of Doctors of Dental Surgery, Doctors of Medicine, and some members with both degrees; furthermore, the curriculum embraces several identical courses taught in the medical schools. Thus, the dental graduate of today not only understands the mechanics of dentistry, but he is also given a medical point of view, including the basic truths of modern scientific medicine. If you eliminate the craft of dental surgery and the mechanics of dentistry in a dental graduate's completed curriculum, you have remaining the science of medicine; to designate the latter dental medicine, must imply the practice of medicine through the dental profession. In the event he chooses to prepare himself for a specialty, he may take postgraduate study. However, if oral surgery is elected, then a hospital interneship will broaden his medical and surgical viewpoint. Professor Garretson of the University of Pennsylvania devoted his life establishing the field of oral surgery as a special branch, stating, “This specialty was that part of the medical and dental professions which overlapped.” As early as 1839, the year when the first dental school was organized, Dr. S. P. Hullihen foresaw the necessity of an all-embracing medical, surgical and dental understanding: and by his professional career demonstrated that it was folly to attempt treatment of diseases of the mouth without appreciation of the complex mechanisms of the whole human organism.

STUDIES OF SOME FACIAL BONES.

The experience gained in a hospital devoted to the treatment of diseases of the jaws, face and associated parts, demonstrated to me several years ago that the text-book descriptions of the anatomy of these parts did not correspond closely with numerous observed clinical facts. To clear up the contradictory elements of this subject, I began, some four years ago, to make serial sections of such skulls as I could gain possession of, in all, numbering some hundreds. These studies, some of which have been published, demonstrated that many of the printed, or text-book, description of the parts included, contained matter entirely at variance with observed facts. Finding these printed errors so numerous in the anatomy relating to the parts embraced in the field of oral surgery, it was natural to carry the observations to more distant parts, and I found in them, as will be shown, that errors of description