Ricerc@Sapienza

OBJECTIVES The purpose of this paper is to de-scribe and investigate the diag-nostic and clinical aspects of oral diseases that are very common during the paediatric age. They may concern soft tissues, hard dental and bone tissues and may be oral manifestations of systemic diseases. Oral pathologist must be aware of these diseases, some of which must be intercepted early, to be able to implement a timely and decisive treatment plan or send the patient to an ultra-specialist fa-cility that deals with oral pathology.

OBJECTIVE:
Neural tube defects may increase the risk of an abnormal development of skull, vertebral column and teeth formation, including dental agenesis in non syndromic patients. The association between the presence of a congenital Dental Agenesis (DA) and the Atlantooccipital Ligament (AOL) calcification, known as "Ponticulus Posticus" (PP), as possible links can be investigated.

The objective of this epidemiological survey is to investigate the dental-skeletal features of subjects attending the Public Dental Service in Unità Operativa Complessa (UOC) (Orthodontic Department of "La Sapienza University of Rome") and compare them with the existing body of evidence obtained from other surveys. Accordingly, the Index of Orthodontic Treatment Need (IOTN) was employed, in order to achieve a common framework to allow the shaping of public health prevention practices.MATERIALS AND METHODS: