[Trial of Idarac in stomatology and maxillofacial surgery (author's transl)]

In the light of a study involving a group of 50 patients hospitalised or seen on an ambulatory basis in a department of Stomatology and Maxillofacial surgery, Idarac (floctafenine) was felt to be an effective analgesic, at an average dose of 4 tablets. Tolerance was excellent from a clinical standpoint, rendering the drug easy to use, both on an out-patient basis as well as postoperatively.

[Diurnal differences in the effectiveness of an analgesic]

At different times of the day, the effect of an analgesic was systematically tested on healthy teeth by using a cold stimulus. The measure of the analgetic effect was the alteration of pain threshold measured by means of the minimum cold application time. In addition to the already known spontaneous variations in pain tolerance at the various times of the day, it was found that in the evening the effect of an analgesic is reduced and begins more slowly.

[Survey of dental drug prescriptions]

6665 prescriptions written out by stomatologists of a large town within three months were analysed with the aid of commercially available slotted cards for which a special hole-saving code had been established. There were differences between the prescriptions from the different fields of stomatological activity (policlinic, privately conducted practice, university clinic) as to contents, which is probably due to their differing tasks. Selected problems, e.g., the prescriptions for personal use (the proportion of which was 12%) and the prescriptions of analgesics were discussed in detail. The results obtained were compared with previous literature reports.

An assessment of antibiotics for the treatment of pyogenic dental infections

Tests made with a series of antibiotics against a number of different organisms indicate that if clinical evidence suggests a streptococcal infection, penicillin should be used otherwise erythromycin is preferred.