Quarterly Dental Review 363

BAA0 D. A., AMMONS W. F. and SELIPSKV t-l. Blood loss during periodontal flap surgery, J. Periodontol. 48 (1978) 693-698. Measurement of blood loss in 30 patients undergoing 39 periodontal flap procedures on posterior areas, mostly undertaken by graduate students, was carried out using a cyanmethaemoglobin. Determination show- ed that the average loss was 134 ml with a range of 16-592 ml when the flap procedure involved an average of five and a half teeth. Wide variations occurred between patients and in the same patient. The only feature which would appear to bear a positive relation to the amount of blood lost was the duration of the operation.

It is recommended that periodontal surgical procedures should be limited to 2 hours and that patients undergoing perio- dontal flap surgery should be carefully monitored. as well as having pre- and postoperative blood pressures recorded and lost fluid replaced intravenously in those who experience orthostatic hypotension or lose O-5 litre or more of blood.

A. Bryan Wade

LONGHURST P., JOHNSON N. W. and HOPPS R. M. Differences in lymphocyte and plasma cell densities in inflamed gingiva from adults and young children, J. feriodontol. 48 (1977) 705-710. Twenty-one gingival biopsies were obtained from 8 adults aged 24-38 years and 12 from around the primary dentition of 10 children aged 3-7 years. The extent of the inflammatory cell infiltrate in the connective tissue was determined by counting lympho- cytes and plasma cells overlying the intercepts of an eyepiece graticule. It was found that the adult tissue had a consider- ably greater density of plasma cells than the child tissue while the lymphocyte density in the two age groups was similar. In actual cell numbers, the adult tissue had approximately equal numbers of plasma cells and lymphocytes while the child tissue had approximately swen times as many lymphocytes as plasma cells. The adult tissue represented chronic inflammation histologically whilst the child tissue was considered to have the appearance of an early lesion.

A. Bryan Wade

PROSTHEirlC DENTISTI? Y

WILLIAMS D. L. Prosthesis for a lost gingival papilla, Dent. Survey 53 (1977) 36-37.

Elimination of a localized periodontal pocket by removing the gingival papilla may be necessary for periodontal health but often leaves a gap between the cervical margins of the teeth which is aesthetically unsatisfactory, If subsequent grafting pro- cedures fail, the deficiency can be made good by making a prosthetic replacement in acrylic resin. This may be retained by incorporating a piece of wire which passes interdentally and slides into a piece of tubing processed into a small horseshoe- shaped baseplate.

Andrew Richardson

RADIOLOGY

WHITE S C and WEISSMAN 0. D. Relative discernment ot lesions by intraoral and panoramic radiography, J. Am. Dent. Assoc. 95(1977) 1117-1121.

Panoramic and intraoral radiography was conducted for patients seeking dental care. Patients who were edentulous or had known or suspected pathological conditions were excluded from the survey.

The intraoral films were examined first and then the panoramic films, and additional pathological lesions not seen on the intra- oral films were noted.

Altogether 3059 sets of radiographs were considered acceptable for the study. Of these, 95 showed no pathological lesions. A further 2802 displayed lesions on the intra- oral films, and no additional finding were found on the panoramic views. These lesions were mainly caries, periodontal disease, osteitis, impacted teeth and osteosclerosis. Of the 162 cases showing additional conditions in the panoramic survey, no conditions were visible on the periapical films in only 3 cases.

Additional findings on the panoramic films included metallic foreign bodies in the