What Is Oral Medicine?

Oral medicine is generally understood as being the study and non-surgical treatment of the diseases affecting the orofacial tissues, especially the oral mucous membrane, but also other associated tissues and structures such as the salivary glands, bone, and the facial tissues. Oral medicine is predominantly an out-patient speciality. The boundaries of oral medicine are poorly defined. For instance, the investigation of facial pain and other neurological disturbances may be considered to be in the field of oral medicine or of oral surgery. It is the responsibility of the general dental practitioner to diagnose and manage some of these conditions. Others are often better treated in specialist clinics, but the general dental practitioner, to a very great extent, bears the responsibility for the recognition of oral disease at an early stage.

Definition of oral medicine

Oral medicine is that area of special competence concerned with the health of and with diseases involving the oral and panoral structures. It includes those principles of medicine that relate to the mouth, as well as research in biological, pathological, and clinical spheres. Oral medicine includes the diagnosis and medical management of diseases specific to the orofacial tissues and of oral manifestations of systemic diseases. It further includes the management of behavioural disorders and the oral and dental treatment of medically compromised patients.

Proposed by the World Workshop on Oral Medicine, held in Chicago, USA, 1998

The development of the discipline of oral medicine has depended largely on the adoption of an analytical approach based on the application of fundamental principles. It follows that the practice of oral medicine as a speciality depends largely on the availability of diagnostic facilities, often greater than those available to the general dental or medical practitioner. Perhaps the most important role of those working in the field of oral medicine is in the recognition of changes in the oral cavity resulting from generalized disease processes. Many oral lesions that, in the past, were considered to be of entirely local origin are now known to be associated with systemic abnormalities. For this reason specialists in oral medicine have a close working relationship with a large number of medical and surgical specialities. The most potent factor in the expansion of the scope of oral medicine was the change of emphasis from the purely descriptive to the investigative. The modern concept of the subject implies a recognition of basic aetiological factors, of the histopathological and molecular changes occurring in the involved tissues, and of the significance of such matters as the general medical status of patients. The challenge for the future of the speciality is to develop evidence-based management protocols.

Reference 

1. Field, Anne. 2003. Tyldesley's Oral Medicine, vol. 5th ed. Oxford Unsiversity Press, UK.