Oral Medicine and Pathology
Oral pathology / oral medicine is a specialty area of dentistry that is concerned with the health of the mouth and the diagnosis and management of diseases of the oral region.
It’s not about teeth and gums
As part of your dental checkup your dentist will look in your mouth for abnormalities in your cheeks, tongue,roof of your mouth, lips and all those other areas in your mouth.
What’s normal?
There is a whole range of normal looks like but tissues in the mouth can change and swellings can develop,white areas, red areas, ulcers, pigmented areas. Often you are not even aware they are there. Some of these area require treatment but first we need to confirm exactly what it is by taking a sample (Biopsy).
What is a biopsy?
A biopsy involves the removal of the area of tissue that we have concerns about either completely removing it or just taking a little bit so we can send it to the lab and they can look at it under microscope.
What is the purpose of a biopsy?
Well after the sample is looked at under a microscope we can then identify exactly what the sample is and can diagnose any disease and then move forward with management and treatment.