CURRENT TRENDS IN

ORAL MUCOSAL LESIONS

By Dr. Devi Charan ShettyPrincipal,

Professor & HODDept. of Oral & Maxillofacial Pathology

ITS Dental College & Hospital

• Conventional oral examination has undetermined sensitivity and specificity.

• Detection of and distinction between benign and oral potentially malignant and malignant lesions

• Large number of oral lesions are encountered

by dentist performing oral screening which amounts to 5-15% of screened

patients

•

There are certain adjunctive screening tools that may be of added value and could be considered in conjunction with the annual oral screening examination at the time of identification of any suspicious lesion.

Occult primary cancers may go unnoticed in conventional examination.

Adjuncts in Diagnosis of Oral Lesions

• Vital Stains- Toluidine Blue• Visualizations• Light activated- Velscope, Colposcope• Laser activated fluorescence (Confocal)

• Cytology• Exfoliative cytology• Brush biopsy• Liquid based cytology

• Future Diagnostic adjuncts•Microarray•FISH•Quantum dots (nanotechnology)

More objective grading and staging of the lesion.

Molecular characterization of the lesion.

Prognostically more significant

Increased sensitivity and specificity.

More close monitoring of the progression of the lesion.