This paper is based on experience of periodontal practice in Yugoslavia, Bosnia and Herzegovina respectively. Factors of relevance to the multidisciplinary approach to periodontal therapy are the level of development of public health, the teaching curricula in periodontology in dental schools, the organization of public dental health services (demand only or systematic oral care services) including the target groups and the dentist to population ratios. Quantification of periodontal treatments, the Community Periodontal Index of Treatment Needs (CPITN) and the recent analysis of the American Academy of Periodontology on periodontics in the twenty-first century are also of great relevance. Periodontology is a higher level discipline of public as well as dental health. The specialist periodontist carries out all the treatments in periodontology undertaken by the general dental practitioner and more specialized treatments not usually performed by the generalist.

Blood mononuclear cell suspensions from patients with a severe form of periodontal disease failed to respond by in vitro stimulation to a sonicate from the oral bacterium, Veillonella alcalescens. The proliferative response could be restored by the depletion of TG cells by rosetting with IgG-coated ox erythrocytes and by reconstitution of the cell suspension with 10% plastic-adherent monocytes. Small but statistically significant restoration of the Veillonella response was also achieved by the addition of indomethacin or mefenamic acid to unfractionated cell cultures, indicating only a minor role of prostaglandin (PG) synthesis in the expression of suppressor cells. Since the in vitro response to an unrelated antigen PPD had been found unimpaired, the described TG-cell-mediated suppression of the Veillonella response is apparently antigen-specific.

In a preliminary study, three unstable, juvenile diabetics were first connected to a glucose-controlled insulin infusion system (Biostator), and subsequently to a portable infusor (Mill Hill Infuser) for continuous subcutaneous insulin application. The levels of glucose and several other metabolites as well as the insulin requirement were compared. As a tentative conclusion, continuous subcutaneous application is recommended (1) for long-term therapy when several daily doses are required and (2) after metabolic compensation with a Biostator, but before conventional therapy.