Since the 1970’s lasers are used in oral and maxillofacial surgery. The effect of a laser on tissue is determined by the wavelength of the laserlight and the tissue specific absorbtion. Lasers are used for evaporation, excision and coagulation of tissue. The CO2-laser, the Nd:YAG-laser and the Argonlaser are used for these purposes. Light and laserlight are used for the diagnosis of mucosal lesions. By using different excitation wavelength autofluorescence of lesions can be detected and analysed. An artificial neural network can be used to analyse these data. Photodynamic Therapy (PDT) is a cancer therapy based on the more or less specific absorption of a drug in tumour, that can be activated with light of a specific wavelength. Activation of this drug causes tumour destruction due to the formation of oxyginradicals. PDT is limited by the penetration of the activating light and is therefore only suitable for the treatment of superficial tumours.

The aim of this prospective randomized clinical trial was to evaluate and compare a set of clinical items and satisfaction of a group of edentulous patients during a 5-year follow-up. They were treated according to one of the following modalities: 61 patients with a mandibular overdenture on two implants (IMP-group), 60 patients with a conventional complete denture (VP-group) and 28 patients with a complete denture after preprosthetic surgery (MVP-group). It can be concluded that endosseous implants, serving as retention for a mandibular overdenture, have a high survival rate after 5 years of follow-up (93%). The mean satisfaction score of the VP-group was lower than of the IMP-group. The mean satisfaction score of the MVP-group is lower than of the IMP-group.

Since April 1995, patients’ right to information and the duty of the operator to obtain their consent are legally established in the ‘Medical Treatment Contract Act’. The aim of this study was to make an inventory of the number and type of information- and consent-complaints of Dutch dental patients, archived by the Dutch Dental Association in the years 1987-2000. By means of a registration form, complaints were analyzed and categorized. The results show that the number of complaints is slightly decreasing since the introduction of the ‘Medical Treatment Contract Act’. However, complaints about lack of information on the treatment and consequences of treatment significantly increased. 60% of all complaints officially dealt with is (partly) substantiated. Redressment of done injustice, sometimes combined with a warning, is the sanction most often imposed. Although a substantial minority of the complaints is not substantiated, communication problems between dentist and patient do also seem to play an important role in those complaints. It is therefore necessary that dentists will provide comprehensible information to their patients.

Low-intensity ultrasound is frequently used for non-invasive diagnostic purposes. However, low intensity ultrasound can also be used as a therapeutical agent. It has been concluded from animal experiments that it significantly stimulates the growth of bone. In clinical trials an accelerated healing of fracture has been found. Future research has to define the role in dentistry and the final therapeutical value of low intensity ultrasound.

The risk of endocarditis developing as the consequence of a bacteremia caused by a health care procedure in a patient with a predisposing heart disease is small. The administration of antibiotics before such a procedure is thought to reduce this risk still further. However, the protective effect of this preventive measure has never been demonstrated in a prospective randomized study. With certainty it can be said though, that it is not 100% efficacious and reports on prophylaxis failure have appeared ever since the introduction of this preventive measure. The revised guidelines are as far as possible based on published data. Where data are lacking, experts opinion was followed. The guidelines are not exhaustive and do not cover each and every circumstance in which prophylaxis could be warrantable. The purpose of the guidelines is to give the clinician something to go by in the most frequently occurring health care procedures. Not everyone will agree with the choices made by the commission in areas where data are lacking. In these areas, local directives may differ from the published directives. For a made to order advice on prophylaxis one should turn to an expert on endocarditis.

Despite education, regulations and preventive measures firework injuries still occur. Common firework injuries include burns, trauma due to flying fireworks and explosion trauma. Males outnumbered females by 2.5 : 1. The hand is the most frequently injured body part, followed by the eyes, the face, the groins and lower extremities. The craniofacial skeleton and dentition are less frequently effected. Severe facial firework trauma need a multidisciplinary approach. The dentist has to be aware of the longterm complications of firework injuries in the face such a trismus due to contraction of the skin, the muscles and the oral mucosa, and multilation of the dentition, alveolar process and soft tissues.

Since the forties of the last century asbestos has been used for many different applications but in the seventies it was detected to be a very dangerous material. Asbestosis, a pneumoconiosis, is one effect but much more severe are the late effects of exposure: lung cancer and mesothelioma. For the time being hardly any remedy is available against the afflictions and despite many measures taken during the last decades the death toll by asbestos is still on the increase.

A website which functions as a basis in order to offer as much information as possible about a certain subject is considered to be very efficient and is often used as a starting point for surfing all over the Internet. MedNet is a start page that enables the user to consult on-line, under the same roof, the information that is important for dentistry, and it has been operational for some time now. What dentistry in Holland can expect on this website will be described in this article.