Abstract
Smear specimens were prepared from the inner surface of lower wisdom teeth of 20 normal healthy control cases and 252 cases of pericoronitis and stained by Papanicolaou and Giemsa.
1) Cytoplasm showed yellow, red mixed with blue or blue mixed with red, and blue according to the progress of keratinization by Papanicolaou staining. In chronic cases cells were more poorly stained than in normal control and acute cases.
2) Exfoliated epitheilail cells were classified accoding to keratinization or cytoplamic colors by staining and a definite relationship between progress of keratinization of acute and chronic cases could be statistically noticed as to rise and fall of the disease.
The severer symptoms shows the inflammation. the lower tends the keratinization, and parabasal cells and atypical cells increased in their number as a specific finding.
3) Regressive changes were most remarkable in chronic cases, which were followed by acute and normal cases in the order.
4) The largest number of white blood cells could be seen in acute cases and as the disease proceeds to chronic type, they showed a decrease, which could be helpful to observation of the clinical progress.
