periapical periodontitis - Medical Dictionary

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periapical periodontitis		Inflammation of the periapical tissue. It includes general, unspecified, or acute nonsuppurative inflammation. Chronic nonsuppurative inflammation is periapical granuloma. Suppurative inflammation is periapical abscess. [ Articles \| Books \| Images \| Discussion groups ]

Additional comments : Free Full Text Update in dental implant periapical surgery (pdf) Med Oral Patol Oral Cir Bucal. 2006 Aug 1;11(5):E429-32. Implant periapical lesions are infectious-inflammatory alterations surrounding an implant apex, and can be caused by a number of situations--including contamination at instrumentation, overheating of bone, and the prior existence of bone pathology. The diagnosis is based on the clinical manifestations and radiological findings, where a radiotransparency can be seen at periapical level. The lesions are classified according to their evolutive stage as either acute (non-suppurated and suppurated) or chronic (or periapical abscess). The management of implant periapical lesions comprises periapical surgery with curettage and irrigation in the acute phase, or implant extraction when the bone surface is affected and/or primary fixation is lost (chronic phase). Management of periodontitis associated with endodontically involved teeth: a case series J Contemp Dent Pract. 2005 May 15;6(2):118-29. The pulp and the periodontal attachment are the two components that enable a tooth to function in the oral cavity. Lesions of the periodontal ligament and adjacent alveolar bone may originate from infections of the periodontium or tissues of the dental pulp. The simultaneous existence of pulpal problems and inflammatory periodontal disease can complicate diagnosis and treatment planning. The function of the tooth is severely compromised when either one of these is involved in the disease process. Treatment of disease conditions involving both of these structures can be challenging and frequently requires combining both endodontic and periodontal treatment procedures. This article presents cases of periodontitis associated with endodontic lesions managed by both endodontic and periodontal therapy. Aetiology, classification and pathogenesis of pulp and periapical disease (pdf) Med Oral Patol Oral Cir Bucal. 2004;9 Suppl:58-62; 52-7. At present, the majority of the treatments that are performed in the clinic are due to disease entities involving the dental pulp and periapex. Dental pulp is a richly vascularized and innervated tissue, enclosed by surrounding tissues that are incapable of expanding, such as dentin. It has terminal blood flow and small-gauge circulatory access the periapex. All of these characteristics severely constrain the defensive capacity of the pulp tissue when faced with the different aggressions it may be subjected to. Pulp tissue can also be affected by a retrograde infection, arising from the secondary canaliculi, from the periodontal ligament or from the apex during the course of periodontitis. Due to the fact that periapical disease is almost inevitably preceded by pulp disease, we shall begin by describing the causes of pulp disease and will then proceed to a discussion of the causes of periapical disease. The course of illness and classification of these pathological entities will depend on the aetiology involved. We will analyse pulp necrosis and pulp degeneration that are capable of triggering reversible apical periodontitis or irreversible apical periodontitis. Virulence factors of Enterococcus faecalis: relationship to endodontic disease Crit Rev Oral Biol Med. 2004 Sep 1;15(5):308-20. Enterococcus faecalis is a micro-organism that can survive extreme challenges. Its pathogenicity ranges from life-threatening diseases in compromised individuals to less severe conditions, such as infection of obturated root canals with chronic apical periodontitis. In the latter situation, the infecting organisms are partly shielded from the defense mechanisms of the body. In this article, we review the virulence factors of E. faecalis that may be related to endodontic infection and the periradicular inflammatory response. The most-cited virulence factors are aggregation substance, surface adhesins, sex pheromones, lipoteichoic acid, extracellular superoxide production, the lytic enzymes gelatinase and hyaluronidase, and the toxin cytolysin. Each of them may be associated with various stages of an endodontic infection as well as with periapical inflammation. While some products of the bacterium may be directly linked to damage of the periradicular tissues, a large part of the tissue damage is probably mediated by the host response to the bacterium and its products. Yeasts in apical periodontitis Crit Rev Oral Biol Med. 2003;14(2):128-37. Microbiological reports of apical periodontitis have revealed that yeasts can be isolated from approximately 5-20% of infected root canals. They occur either in pure cultures or together with bacteria. Almost all isolated yeasts belong to the genus Candida, and the predominant species is C. albicans. Pheno- and genotypic profiles of C. albicans isolates show heterogeneity comparable with those of isolates from other oral sites. C. albicans expresses several virulence factors that are capable of infecting the dentin-pulp complex, including dentinal tubules. This causes, consequentially, an inflammatory response around the root apex, which suggests a pathogenic role for this organism in apical periodontitis. Yeasts are particularly associated with persistent root canal infections that do not respond favorably to conservative root canal therapy. This may be due to the resistance of all oral Candida species against a commonly used topical medicament, calcium hydroxide. However, other antimicrobial agents may offer alternative therapeutic approaches and improve the treatment of these persistent cases of apical periodontitis. Molecular and cultural analysis of the microflora associated with endodontic infections J Dent Res. 2002 Nov;81(11):761-6. Cultural studies have indicated that a subset of the oral microflora is responsible for endodontic infections. Approximately 50% of oral bacteria are unculturable, so it is likely that currently unknown bacteria are present in such infections. In this study, cultural and molecular analyses were performed on the microflora in aspirate samples collected from 5 infected root canals. 16S rDNA sequences from 261 isolates and 624 clones were identified by comparison with database sequences. Sixty-five taxa were identified, of which 26 were found by the molecular method alone. A mean of 20.2 taxa was found in each sample. A new species of Dialister was the only organism present in all 5 samples. Twenty-seven novel taxa were detected, 18 of which belonged to the phylum Firmicutes and 8 to Bacteroidetes. Culture-independent, molecular analysis has revealed a more diverse microflora associated with endodontic infections than that revealed by cultural methods alone Implants and endodontics. I J Am Dent Assoc. 2001 Jun;132(6):720, 722.

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