Absolutely especially if the patient doesn't complain of anything. It's an astonishing discrepancy because dentists should play a crucial role in the detection of pre-cancerous or cancerous lesions.

Yes frederic..its not only bcoz i am an oral pathologist that i feel this way.

All over the world, people are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of regular screening for any abnormality.

Its not just the mouth..its the full body.

But surprisingly, there is no regular checkup of the oral cavity...at least, not for precancer/cancer.

Recently, we had a students' conference in mumbai.

The schedule had lectures on every topic imaginable...esthetics, implants, endodontics, gingival disease...etc.

I literally had to fight to give a presentation of 10 minutes on this...and i think i succeeded only bcoz i was on the organising committee.

Unfortunatelly there are "trendy" topics in many congress which don't take into account the essential.....thel health risk of our patients.

So what are your suggestions to correct this?

Heinz Spranger: The Dentist has to do the inspection. There is no problem: He can investigate in each patient, vestibular, oral and sublingual (inspect and palpate). It only takes a few minutes (and a radiograph too). Therefore, the dentist is able to work on thie thema quickly and thoroughly. But the patient expects but pain and prosthodontics. This makes demand for explanation. The dentist must operate medical history (smoking? Etc.) and then demonstrate examination routine. We have no problems with our students. We scientists need to do a lot of training for dentists, so that after many years they still examine each patient thoroughly.

hi heinz

thank you.

im so glad you feel exactly the way i do.

we MUST do intra-oral examination and palpation for every patient.

Heinz Spranger: I believe that the student must not only observe but the malignant and life-threatening results. I mean that the dentist much more as usually must pay attention to the minor findings of its investigations and their results. I have teaching experience that many students react surprised when pointing to the additional findings features of blood diseases in the oral cavity or in the evaluation of X-ray shows that the panoramic image calcification in the carotid region. He reveals, for example, that more special medically examinations have to be done. I think that this is what we are looking for good didactics.

Absolutely....we must do basic screening procedures, if we have a doubt.

I agree with you. I see this as evidence that we need to examine in doubt. But we also have the duty to make our patients aware of risk. That is why we focus on additional findings too. We call certain findings then 'particularly conspicuous' if it does not make reference to oral health, but also on general health risks. These findings are particularly striking 'symptoms' that cause us to consult other disciplines of medicine. I value the fact that our students are trained to document these important characters.

Its a simple yet an interesting question. I am sure that everybody would have come acoss phrases like..

."Oral cavity is the mirror for the whole body." Or..

"Oral health for overall health." and so on..

It is so because there are several diseases which can be diagnosed by mere examination of the oral cavity. So dentists must not only look for Oral Precancerous lesions or conditions... there are other systemic conditions of which oral cavity is first and foremost affected.

Henceforth dentists must actually act as an ORAL PHYSICIAN... They must screen the whole oral cavity for the better overall health of their patients.

Thank you deepak

which subject are you teaching?

Hello Arnavaz...

I have done my masters in Oral Medicine and Maxillofacial Radiology. And I am teaching the same subject. I have given certain lectures on the same topic in undergraduate conferences to let unger-graduate students know that dentistry is not just mere extraction and fillings.. Its scope as well as application is more wider as we think.. Screening of oral cavity may help is diagnosing almost every type of disesse including psyche induced diseases and disorders.

Henceforth the quotes like " Oral health for overall health " and all have got weightage.

Regards,

Dr. Deepak Gupta,

B.D.S., M.D.S., FICCDE,

Consultant Oral Medicine and Maxillofacial Radiologist.

what do you do Arnavaz

Im in private practice and professor in a dental college

That's great mam. In which college do you work. I am in M.M., College of Dental Sciences and Research, Mullana.

Kind regards,

Dr. Deepak Gupta,

B.D.S., M.D.S., FICCDE.

I am attached to shikshan-o-anusandhan university"s college of dental college of dental sciences, bhubaneswar.

And where is mullana?

Hello Arnavaz..

Mullana is Haryana state of INDIA. Its near Chandigarh. Its really nice to see you here.

Kind regards.

I always check the oral mucosa and the occlusion otherwise i cann't plane for the treatment.

It is not the dentist alone every family physcian should look into the oral cavity as routine

I do check the patient for oral cancer and when encountering oral swellings I do suspect. This is lead me to diagnose a small round cell tumor in a 2 year old female child.

Dear Rangeeth,

You pick out a critical development period of the children. In 20 to 24 months our pediatrician systematically investigate the age-appropriate motor skills and eyesight and hearing. It is also noted that all vaccinations are carried out against life-threatening diseases. This means that during this period the child is already controlled medically. Then it seems us to be also important to examine intra-orally. That we should stress.

Dear Dr. Heinz Spranger

How rare its it to find a bilateral odontoma (complex).

Dear Rangeeth, multiple odontomas are very rare. Statistics are not known to me. Anecdotal: 1967 Brader reported via multiple odontoma in both jaws in combination. Malik and Khalid gave the case of a seven-year-old girl with multiple odontomas in both jaws without further systemic diseases 1974. Schmidseder and Hausamen 1975 reported a case of multiple odontoma in combination with esophageal, liver dysfunction, pulmonary stenosis and Pneumomie, of which a father, his two sons and his daughter were affected. Ajike and Adekeye wrote in 2000 on the case of a 15-year-old girl with multiple odontomas in both jaws without systemic disease. The latest report is the first concerning the dental treatment of multiple odontomas in their combination with interstitial cells of Cajal hyperplasia and intestinal neuronal dysplasia. Please tell me if you want to have further information.

Oral mucosal screeing is vital and essential for dentists and physicians especially in the risk groups like habit abusers, elderly patients etc. considering the high rate of precancers. Unfortunately, the awareness of these oral lesions among the health care providers are limited. An oral medicine specialist can help you and your patients for early detection of such problems and prevent a considerable number of them turning into malignant.

Dentists are progressive in the detection of patholgies of the mucosa of the lips etc.in the case must proceed to a systematic evaluation of the mouth. Because the dentist is departing from numerous systemic diseases begin in the oral cavity.

We have been stressing the students on systematic examination as a routine in both undergraduate as well as postgraduate students .with increase in the systemic diseases and the side effects of the drugs in increase , many more factors has made it mandatory for systemic evaluation .and also oral cavity is mirror of systemic health ,so neglect in this aspect is not tolerated.

Dr daya

im so glad that you put stress on this point for undergraduate students.

It is a must..they must learn the basic oral screening methods.

Thats a very good point. Every clinician should ideally check for mucosal changes.