POTENTIALLY MALIGNANT DISORDERS OF THE ORAL CAVITY – CLINICAL FEATURES

Abstract

Cancers of the oral cavity represent a significant worldwide health problem. Despite the general accessibility of the oral cavity during physical examination, many malignancies are not diagnosed until late stages of disease. A wide array of conditions has been implicated in the development of oral cancer, including leukoplakia, erythroplakia, palatal lesion of reverse cigar smoking, oral lichen planus, oral submucous fibrosis, discoid lupus erythematosus, and hereditary disorders such as dyskeratosis congenital and epidermolysis bullosa.In order to prevent malignant transformation of these precursor lesions, multiple screening and detection techniques have been developed to address this problem. The early detection of cancer is of critical importance because survival rates markedly improve when the oral lesion is identified at an early stage.