VICRYL® rapide is a fast-resorbing synthetic suture material which is widely used in (oral) surgery. The suture wire is broken down by hydrolysis, making its removal unnecessary. The aim of this study was to compare the clinical suitability of the renewed generation VICRYL® rapide with that of the original generation. ‘Suitability’ was defi ned as absence of discomfort, minimal pain for the patient, good knot security and tensile strength, predictable resorption, minimal tissue response and good wound healing. The trial comprised 120 patients who underwent an apicoectomy at the department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. The patients were assigned at random to a group treated with the renewed generation VICRYL® rapide (n = 60) and a control group treated with the original generation (n = 60). The trial was performed double- blind. Regarding the clinical suitability it can be concluded that the renewed generation VICRYL® rapide does not yield any signifi cant improvement over the original generation.

The dental treatment of people with a mental and/or physical disability often entails a variety of related problems and requires extra expertise and competencies on the part of the dentist. If treatment in an ordinary practice is not (or is no longer) possible, the patient can be referred to a centre for special care dentistry or to dental practices in institutions for the mentally disabled. In the Netherlands, a three year postgraduate programme in dentistry for the disabled was established in 2004, the purpose of which is to improve the availability and quality of dental care for the disabled.

The aim of this study was to identify possible problem areas regarding preventive selfcare and dental care for severely mentally retarded children living at home. The sample test comprised parents (n = 126) and dentists (n = 40) of children between the ages of 4 and 12 from 7 randomly selected daycare centres in The Netherlands, who were asked to fi ll out a questionnaire. Of the children 32% were found to receive no dental care at all, while among the children from ethnic minority groups this number exceeded 50%. Of the parents two-thirds indicated that they had encountered problems with daily dental care and 70% reported that their child’s oral hygiene was in need of improvement. Of the dentists 25% were dissatisfi ed with the dental care they provide, and 75% felt that dental care for mentally retarded children needs improving. The results suggest that there is room for improvement in the support of parents of mentally disabled children in maintaining an adequate level of oral hygiene, and that adequate training of dental professionals in serving the needs of people with severe disabilities is wanted.

The development of polymethylmethacrylate bone cement with an open spongelike structure resulted as a spin-off from efforts to dampen the high exothermal peak during hardening of the cement. A cement formulation in which an aqueous gel was mixed through the organic dough showed the desired signifi cantly reduced temperature peak and improved biocompatibility but also ingrowth of bone into the pores that had been formed by the resorbing aqueous gel in the polymerized matrix. The expectation that such a cement would provide a better fi xation of total hip prostheses did not come true because of the diminished mechanical strength due to the same porosity. Better applicability of the cement was found for bony areas that were not subjected to heavy stresses such as bone defect fi lling and augmentation of cranio-facial and sternal deformities. In spite of successful clinical trials and positive fi ndings after long term evaluations a commercial development of the cement was not undertaken because of a market that was estimated too small to be profi table.

A 52-year-old woman was found to have a small squamous cell carcinoma of the palatal gingiva of teeth 21 and 22. Such a location is extremely rare. Treatment consisted of a partial maxillectomy. The defect was closed by a partial denture. During the 5 year follow-up period no signs of local recurrence or metastatic spread occurred.