Coincidence and awareness of oral parafunctions in college students

OBJECTIVE

The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence and awareness of particular types of oral parafunctions in young healthy students and any association with temporomandibular disorders (TMD).

MATERIAL AND METHODS

The study was performed in a randomly selected group of 303 healthy students (mean age 18.8 years) from the vocational technical school in Wrocław, Poland, who underwent a routine clinical examination and functional analysis of the mouth. On taking the history all subjects were asked about their awareness of various forms of parafunctional activity in their mouth.

RESULTS

Almost all subjects revealed various oral parafunctions such as: bruxism, nail and pen biting, chewing gum, and biting the mucosa of lip or cheek. These habits were present singly or as double, triple or even fourfold coincidences in a single person. The most frequent oral parafunctions were habitual gum chewing and bruxism. Subjects were very seldom aware of the last parafunction. TMDs were more prevalent in the presence of bruxism than in other oral parafunctions.

CONCLUSIONS

The studied students revealed various types of oral parafunctions, however most of them were not aware of clenching and grinding their teeth.

A Bni4-Glc7 phosphatase complex that recruits chitin synthase to the site of bud emergence

Bni4 is a scaffold protein in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae that tethers chitin synthase III to the bud neck by interacting with septin neck filaments and with Chs4, a regulatory subunit of chitin synthase III. We show herein that Bni4 is also a limiting determinant for the targeting of the type 1 serine/threonine phosphatase (Glc7) to the bud neck. Yeast cells containing a Bni4 variant that fails to associate with Glc7 fail to tether Chs4 to the neck, due in part to the failure of Bni4(V831A/F833A) to localize properly. Conversely, the Glc7-129 mutant protein fails to bind Bni4 properly and glc7-129 mutants exhibit reduced levels of Bni4 at the bud neck. Bni4 is phosphorylated in a cell cycle-dependent manner and Bni4(V831A/F833A) is both hyperphosphorylated and mislocalized in vivo. Yeast cells lacking the protein kinase Hsl1 exhibit increased levels of Bni4-GFP at the bud neck. GFP-Chs4 does not accumulate at the incipient bud site in either a bni4::TRP1 or a bni4(V831A/F833A) mutant but does mobilize to the neck at cytokinesis. Together, these results indicate that the formation of the Bni4-Glc7 complex is required for localization to the site of bud emergence and for subsequent targeting of chitin synthase.

Study on the occurrence of microorganisms on the post-surgical maxillary prostheses with obturators and in the post-surgical cavities of maxilla

The bacterial environment of the mouth cavity may be subjected to change under influence of various factors, such as surgical removal of neoplasm tumors and in consequence the wearing of post-surgical prostheses with obturators. The purpose of the paper was to study the conceivable differences in occurrence of particular types of microorganisms found on the margin of post-surgical cavities and on the prosthetic obturators. The performed microbiologic examinations revealed that more pathologic bacterial flora was found on the obturators than in the post-surgical cavities. The authors conclude that the post-surgical patients should pay more attention to the very accurate hygiene of their prostheses and the mouth cavity as well.

Epidemiologic studies on prevalence and etiology of functional disturbances of the masticatory system

Clinical observations and data from the literature indicate a high prevalence of functional disturbances of the masticatory system, especially TMJ dysfunctions and bruxism. Clinical observations indicate that these disturbances are caused mainly by malocclusion, iatrogenic factors, and increased psychoemotional tension. On the basis of epidemiologic studies on five populations of different ages, the prevalence and etiology of functional disturbances of the masticatory system were analyzed. The need for causal local prophylaxis of functional disturbances was postulated.