ORAL PATHOLOGY AND ORAL MEDICINE

ORAL PATHOLOGY AND ORAL MEDICINE

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Oral Pathology and Oral Medicine is a branch of dental specialty which deals with the identification, diagnosis and management of diseases affecting the oral and maxillofacial region. Generally, the specialty comprises two (2) components namely Oral Pathology and Oral Medicine. Oral pathology is the field of diagnosing of disease through histopathological methods while oral medicine mainly deals with treatment that does not require surgical intervention.

The Oral Pathology and Oral Medicine specialists are stationed at hospitals with histopathology laboratory facilities and work closely with other specialties for multidisciplinary patient management. They are also involved in research related to oro-maxillofacial diseases.

This specialty is divided into two (2) categories as follows:

1. Oral Pathology

This specialty involving grossing of biopsy specimens, microscopic examination and generation of histopathological reports of biopsies cases. Diagnostic laboratory services are offered for the following cases from the oral and maxillofacial regions:

Disorders of teeth and tooth supporting structure
Conditions/ disorders of the oral mucosa: hyperplasia, oral potentially malignant disorders, oral epithelial malignancies, local and systemic infections, oral mucosal pigmentations
Disorders of facial and jaw bones: cystic and cyst-like lesions, odontogenic lesions, odontogenic cysts/ tumours, fibro-osseous lesions
Salivary gland diseases: sialolithiasis, sialoadenitis, salivary neoplasms
Soft tissue and bone tumours
Other disorders/ conditions of the oral and maxillofacial regions

2. Oral Medicine

This specialty managing the non-surgical management of cases as follows:

Oral ulcer: recurrent apthous stomatitis, lichen planus, lichenoid reaction, lupus erythematous, Behcet’s disease
Vesiculobullous lesions and immune-mediated conditions: pemphigus, pemphigoid
Oro-maxillofacial pain: trigeminal neuralgia, atypical facial pain/ odontalgia, pain from temporomandibular joint, burning mouth syndrome
Salivary gland dysfunction: disturbance of salivation, xerostomia
Mucosal infections: oral candidiasis, herpes labialis, oral syphilis, herpes zoster, herpetic gingivostomatitis
Oral potentially malignant lesions: leukoplakia, erythroplakia, oral submucous fibrosis
Oral manifestations of systemic diseases
Inter-disciplinary case management: referral cases from dermatology, neurology, oncology, rheumatology, gastroenterology, haematology, nephrology, geriatric medicine


Grossing the oral specimen done by the oral pathologist at the histopathology lab		Recurrent oral ulcer - one of the type of cases seen at Oral Medicine Clinic