2. • Oral and maxillofacial pathology is the specialty in dentistry that deals
with the nature, identification and management of diseases affecting
the oral and maxillofacial regions
• It is the science that investigates the causes, processes and effects of
the diseases.
• Practice of oral pathology includes research, diagnosis of disease
using clinical, radiographic, microscopic, biochemical or other
examination and management of patients
3. Classification of oral diseases
• - According to tissues affected
•The different oral and maxillofacial diseases may
affect different tissues which include
•Hard tissues- teeth, bones
•Soft tissues in oral and paraoral regions
4. Soft tissue legions
1. Epithelial in origin
• Legions originated from odontogenic epithelium
• Legions originated from non odontogenic epithelium
• Legions originated from glandular epithelium
2. Mesenchymal in origin- lesions originated from:
• Fibrous tissue
• Blood and lymphatic vessels
• Muscle
• Nerve
• Adipose tissue
• Bone
• Cartilage
5. Diagnosis depends on the type of tissue affected
Hard tissues diagnosis depends mainly on:
• Clinical features- age, gender, site, size and clinical effects
• Radiographic features
• Microscopic features
Diagnosis of Soft tissue lesions depends on
• Site
• Colour
• Size
• Microscopic features
• morphology
• Elevation- above plane of mucosa
• Depression
• Flatness
12. Diagnostic aids
• Biopsy is the removal of living tissue for examination in order to
establish a precise diagnosis
• All hard and soft tissue removed during surgical procedures should be
submitted for gross and microscopic examination; this safeguards
against unnecessary surgical procedures
• permits establishment of a final diagnosis and proper patient management
• Reveals the nature of a disease process that is completely unsuspected by the
clinician
• In medico-legal cases the biopsy report provides an important legal document
in support of the clinician
