Oral medicine

Oral medicine in the United Kingdom (UK) is a hospital based specialty that sits at the interface of medicine and dentistry and uses the knowledge, skills, and training drawn from both disciplines. It is principally outpatient based, with patients being referred from dental specialties, medical and surgical specialties, general dental practice, and general medical practice. Patient management can involve colleagues from gastrointestinal medicine, genitourinary medicine, dermatology, rheumatology, psychiatry and psychology, chronic pain clinics, orofacial surgery, and neurosurgery among many others. Diagnosis of conditions involves working closely with colleagues in pathology, microbiology, and virology, among other specialties.

Patients may present with oral manifestations of systemic disease, with disease primarily of the oral tissues, or with lesions secondary to therapeutic interventions for other conditions. Disease processes may be inflammatory, infective, or neoplastic, and therapy can involve the use of a spectrum of agents, from simple topical drugs to strong systemic immunosuppressive or anti-inflammatory agents, or even simple minor surgery for excision of soft-tissue lesions.

As well as a diagnostic and therapeutic service, practitioners are involved in the teaching of oral medicine to undergraduates, postgraduates in masters and doctorate programmes, specialist trainees, and also to general practitioners as part of continuing professional development. In addition to teaching, the academic aspect of oral medicine involves clinical and laboratory research into the mechanisms of disease, and exploring new therapeutic strategies, often with the assistance of drugs' researchers. Within the UK, the medical background of specialists in oral medicine means that practitioners are ideally placed to manage and contribute to the undergraduate teaching of human disease and the aspects of medicine and surgery that the General Dental Council expects for undergraduate dental students.