Term

Mucosal disorders affecting the tongue, gums and inner lining of the mouth are often difficult to diagnose and require a clinical assessment by an Oral Medicine consultant. Those disorders can be chronic and painful which adversely impact the patient’s quality of life.  There are many causes of erosive or ulcerative oral mucosal lesions. Those could be related to auto-immune diseases or rare forms of hypersensitivity reactions, such as mucous membrane pemphigoid, pemphigus vulgaris, aphthous ulcers, oral lichen planus among others.  Some of those lesions might be pre-cancerous. If there is suspicion, an early diagnosis might prevent the progression to cancer and improve prognosis. Early diagnosis usually requires a small sample taken from the suspicious lesion under local anaesthesia.