Bacterial Infections Of the Oral Cavity: Questions and Answers
Question 1. Write a short note on Cancrum Oris.
Answer. It is also called NOMA or gangrenous stomatitis.
- It is a rapidly spreading gangrene of oral and facial tissues occurring in a deliberate or nutritionally deficient person.
- It is caused by Fusobacterium necrophorum.
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Cancrum Oris – Predisposing Factors
- It occurs in undernourished persons.
- Various debilitated infections, i.e,. Diphtheria, dysentery, measles, pneumonia, scarlet fever, syphilis, tuberculosis, and blood dyscrasias can predispose to cancrum oris.
- Presence of excessive mechanical injury.
- Poor oral hygiene promotes the growth of bacteria, which increases the susceptibility to infection.
- AIDS leading to immunodeficiency can predispose to cancrum oris.
- Various miscellaneous factors, i.e,. Stress, sickle cell trait, and chemotherapeutic agents,s can cause noma.
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Cancrum Oris – Clinical Features
- It is seen chiefly in children, mainly in malnourished children.
- Common sites are areas of stagnation around a fixed bridge or crown.
- Commencement of gangrene is denoted by blackening of the skin. Small ulcers of the gingival mucosa spread rapidly and involve the surrounding tissue of the jaws, lips, and cheeks by gangrenous necrosis. The odor is foul. The patient has a high temperature during the disease, suffers secondary infection, and may die from toxemia.
- Overlying skin is inflamed, edematous and finally necrotic which results in formation of line of demarcation between healthy and dead tissue.
- In the advanced stage, there is blue-black discoloration of the skin.
- As the gangrenous process advances, slough appears and soon separates, leaving a perforating wound in the involved area.
- The large masses may be sloughed out, leaving jaws exposed.
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Cancrum Oris – Management
- Parenteral fluid should be given urgently to correct dehydration and electrolyte balance.
- Blood transfusion helps in improving the clinical state of a patient who is anemic and toxic.
- The specific drug of choice is penicillin.
- Reconstructive surgery is done to lead a normal life.
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