Scope
Oral medicine is concerned with clinical diagnosis and non-surgical management of non-dental pathologies affecting the oral and maxillofacial region, such as oral lichen planus, Behçet's disease and pemphigus vulgaris. Moreover, it involves the diagnosis and follow-up of pre-malignant lesions of the oral cavity, like leukoplakia or erythroplakia and of chronic and acute pain conditions such as paroxysmal neuralgias, continuous neuralgias, myofascial pain, atypical facial pain, autonomic cephalalgias, headaches and migraines. Another aspect of the field is managing the dental and oral condition of medically compromised patients. For example, cancer patients who suffer from related oral mucositis, bisphosphonate-related osteonecrosis of the jaws or oral pathology related to radiation therapy. Additionally, it is involved in the clinical diagnosis and management of dry mouth conditions, such as Sjögren's syndrome, and non-dental chronic orofacial pain conditions, such as burning mouth syndrome, trigeminal neuralgia and temporomandibular joint disorder.
The main facets of oral medicine are:
- Clinical care
- Research
- Undergraduate and postgraduate teaching
Read more about this topic: Oral Medicine
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