Oral Biopsy in General Dental Practice: A Review

Oral biopsy is considered essential for diagnosis of diseases of the oral mucosa, and subsequent treatment planning. Taking biopsies are widely used in all specialties of medical fields; the practice is not common among dental practitioners, this may be because of lack of awareness among Dental surgeons. The ability of the oral pathologist to interpret a lesion is mainly dependent on a good biopsy performed by the dental surgeon. The purpose of this review is to discuss indications, contraindications of taking oral biopsy and highlight important potential pitfalls that may occur during biopsy technique, an effort has been made to discuss the role of a Dental surgeon in diagnosing the pre-malignant, malignant lesions thereby helping in decreasing the incidence of oral cancers is also discussed here.