Oral mucosal melanoma: An enigma to the clinician

Oral mucosal melanoma is a rare oral malignancy with well defined clinical presentation of a pigmented brown macular to nodular lesion. The careful histopathological examination along with immunohistochemistry of the biopsy specimen was helpful in identification of this noxious lesion. A clear distinction between management and prognosis of benign gingival lesions and rarer lesions exists. Thus every general dental practitioner should advocate a mandatory histopathological examination of the each and every gingival growth. We present a unique case of oral mucosal melanoma masquerading as a benign gingival growth without any clinical presence of pigmentation in a 58-year-old male patient.