Oral Medicine & Pathology
Oral medicine and pathology includes medical and oral diseases of the mouth, face and jaws. This covers common conditions such as mouth ulcers, white lesions (such as Lichen planus), infections, sore mouth, swellings and oral cancer.
Disease of the mouth and jaws can be caused by disorders of the immune system, inflammation, infection, developmental, nutritional, medications and neoplasia (cancer). Our Oral and Maxillofacial surgeons have trained in both Medicine and Dentistry and have further specialist training that makes them well versed with conditions that affect the mouth, teeth and jaws.
Following an initial clinical evaluation most conditions require further investigations in the form of an xray and or scans (CT or MRI), biopsy, swabs and blood tests. Your surgeon usually determines the appropriate test.
Oral pathology usually refers to the presence of abnormal tissue in the mouth or jaws that requires further evaluation. Most oral pathology usually requires a biopsy to determine the diagnosis followed by surgical management of the abnormal tissue.
The biopsy is a simple procedure that is performed under local anaesthesia where a small abnormal tissue sample is taken and sent to the pathology laboratory for confirmation by a pathologist. The pathologist is usually someone who specialises in assessing and diagnosing abnormal tissues of the Oral & Maxillofacial regions. They determine whether the tissue is benign or cancerous and send a report to your surgeon. Your surgeon will discuss the biopsy report findings with you together with treatment options before definitive management is carried out.