Oral medicine practice in Europe and Australia: Identifying practitioner characteristics and their clinical activity

Abstract

Oral Medicine (OM) is a young dental specialty born almost a century ago in the United States treating patients with complex oral mucosal manifestations. Such demanding clinical conditions lead to the combination of knowledge in general medicine, dermatology and pathology to provide care to such patients (Shklar & McCarthy, 2008).Briefly, it could be stated that OM practice includes diagnosis and management of orofacial conditions not directly attributable to the most prevalent tooth-related pathologies such as dental caries or periodontal diseases. Presentations may reflect specific mouth disease or orofacial manifestations of systemic multifocal conditions.Nevertheless, the scope, definition and academic education vary significantly across the world (Bez et al., 2017;Scully et al., 2016). The field of Oral Medicine independently developed across the globe and the young age of this discipline, jointly with diversity of cultures and heterogeneity of global settings and healthcare systems, has led to differences in its practice (Bez et al., 2017;Scully et al., 2016).

Oral leukoplakia diagnosis and treatment in Europe and Australia: Oral Medicine Practitioners' attitudes and practice

“…No significant differences between EAOM and OMAA members were observed in the response rate, and the EAOM respondents were representative of the 5 EAOM Regions. The respondents have been fully described in our previous report (Pentenero, Sutera, et al, 2021).…”

“…The first section (17 questions) collected respondents' sociodemographic characteristics, academic training and clinical practice information already reported and discussed elsewhere (Pentenero, Sutera, et al, 2021). From those data the following OMPs' characteristics were extracted and considered in the present study as detailed below: age, gender, geographical practice setting (EAOM Regions/OMAA), attainment of postgraduate training in OM, clinical practice mainly dealing with OM (exceeding 40% of total clinical practice), OM practice significantly dealing with the management of OL/OSCC (exceeding 20% of total OM practice), OMPs' practice including surgery (exceeding 20% of total clinical practice), OMPs' significant involvement in research (exceeding 20% of total working time).…”

Oral medicine education in predoctoral programs in US dental schools

“…There are only six CODA‐accredited dental schools in the United States, which may have an effect on the number of OM specialists practicing in dental schools. It is worth noting that OM specialists manage a wide range of conditions including autoimmune, immune‐mediated, and ulcerative oral lesions, cancerous and potentially malignant oral lesions, oral infections including bacterial, fungal, viral and other infections, orofacial pain conditions, management of oral‐related adverse events of cancer therapy including conventional chemotherapy and radiotherapy as well as targeted therapies and immunotherapy, salivary gland disorders, and dental management of medically compromised patients 9,10 . In addition to their role in patient care, OM specialists are often involved in education and research in academic centers, which highlights the diversity of fields they can contribute to 11 …”

The development of an online serious game for oral diagnosis and treatment planning: evaluation of knowledge acquisition and retention

“…Oral medicine is a dental specialty purposing to diagnose and manage patients with oral mucosal lesions. Competence in oral medicine has been considered as a prerequisite at both dental undergraduate and postgraduate levels although there appear to be heterogeneities of oral medicine practice due to geographical variations [ 12 ]. As emotional intelligence and clinical decision making are considered as important [ 13 ], clinical training is required to achieve expected competence in diagnosis and management of oral lesions, rather than relying solely on classroom settings [ 14 , 15 ].…”