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Oral Disease

Case Studies of Difficult Diagnoses

  • 1st Edition - May 12, 2026
  • Latest edition
  • Author: Carl M. Allen
  • Language: English

Oral Disease: Case Studies of Difficult Diagnoses provides unique insights into the variety of approaches that may play a role in arriving at the correct diagnosis of condit… Read more

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Description

Oral Disease: Case Studies of Difficult Diagnoses provides unique insights into the variety of approaches that may play a role in arriving at the correct diagnosis of conditions involving the oral and maxillofacial region. The book features 116 detailed vignettes and 350 images, representing patients referred by a variety of specialists to Dr. Carl Allen over his 40-year career in oral and maxillofacial pathology. Each vignette offers valuable information about the diagnostic process and challenges of diseases of the oral soft tissues and bone. Topics include trauma-related conditions, developmental conditions and syndromes, viral and fungal infections, immune-mediated disorders, oral precancerous lesions, lymphoreticular and surface epithelial malignancies, salivary gland malignancies, and more.

It is often said that we learn best from the mistakes that we make. This text gives medical and dental clinicians the opportunity to learn from the mistakes of others (including those of Dr. Allen!).

Key features

  • 116 vignettes feature a description of the patient's journey before diagnosis, the diagnostic process, and the significance of the situation to clinical professionals
  • 350 full-color photos and illustrations show the clinically diagnostic features of each lesion
  • Consistent format provides ease of use and reference
  • Expert authorship ensures that all information is authoritative, current, and clinically accurate
  • eBook versionincluded with print purchase — allows you to access all of the text, figures and references, with the ability to search, customize content, make notes and highlights, and have content read aloud

Readership

Dental and medical clinicians, General dentists and dental specialists

Table of contents

Section 1: Developmental Conditions/Syndromes

1. Acro-osteolysis syndrome

2. Gardner syndrome

3. Oligodontia misdiagnosed as ectodermal dysplasia

4. Plasminogen deficiency

5. White sponge nevus

Section 2: Dental Conditions

6. Fluorosis

7. Erosion secondary to bulimia

Section 3: Environmental and Trauma-Related Conditions

8. Toothbrush trauma

9. Petechial hemorrhage caused by fellatio

10. Oxycontin insufflation injury

11. Abrading the fibrin covering a non-specific ulcer

12. Traumatic ulcers related to xerostomia and candida

13. Burn caused by inhaling hashish ember

14. Graphite tattoo

15. Factitial oro-antral fistula

16. Lip burns caused by crack pipe

17. Mucosal sloughing caused by tartar-control toothpaste

Section 4: Salivary Gland – Reactive

18. Necrotizing sialometaplasia

Section 5: Infections – Bacterial

19. Syphilis – secondary, presenting as lymphadenopathy

20. Syphilis – secondary, presenting as leukoplakia

Section 6: Infections - Fungal

21. Candidiasis – mucosal presentations and their management

22. Candidiasis – severe cheilitis/lip balms

23. Candidiasis – perioral, due to petroleum jelly application

24. Candidiasis – invasive in uncontrolled diabetic with oral ulcer

25. Aspergillosis – patient being treated for leukemia

Section 7: Infections – Viral

26. Hand, foot and mouth disease mistaken for erythema multiforme

27. Oral HSV-1 in a leukemia patient

28. Oral primary herpes affecting a teenager

29. Herpes - recurrent intraoral infection

Section 8: Oral Manifestations of HIV Infection

30. Oral Kaposi sarcoma mistaken for Crohn disease

31. Recurrent candidiasis and Kaposi sarcoma in a previously undiagnosed HIV patient

32. HSV causing a persistent tongue ulcer

33. Oral lymphoma mimicking a pyogenic granuloma

34. Oral aphthous ulcers in HIV-positive patients

35. Oral histoplasmosis in AIDS patients

36. HIV-positive man with squamous cell carcinoma

37. Behcet syndrome in an HIV-positive man

38. HIV-positive man with gingival ulceration

39. HIV-positive man with a vascular anomaly of his lip

Section 9: Oral Precancerous Conditions – Leukoplakia and Erythroplaki

40. Precancerous oral lesions - three different presentations

41. Erythroplakia of the floor of the mouth, treated with radiation

42. Erythro-leukoplakia of young man’s tongue

Section 10: Oral Precancerous Conditions – Proliferative Verrucous Leukoplaki

43. A woman with palatal erythroplakia and pharyngeal “polyps”

44. PVL of the mandibular ridge

45. PVL of a young woman’s tongue

46. PVL of the lateral tongue of a nurse, treated as lichen planus

47. PVL, lichenoid, in a middle-aged man

48. PVL, slowly progressive in an older man

49. PVL, erosive, but eventually leukoplakia and carcinoma

50. PVL, young woman with lichenoid tongue lesions

51. PVL eventually transforming to verrucous carcinoma

Section 11: Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma (SCCa)

52. Poorly differentiated Ca of buccal mucosa in a young woman

53. SCCa of tongue treated as denture sore

54. SCCa of gingiva arising in “lichen planus”

55. SCCa of gingiva mistaken for cyclosporine hyperplasia

56. SCCa of the lower lip in BMT patient, treated as infection

57. SCCa of dorsal tongue, treated as candidiasis

58. SCCa, large and destructive of the buccal mucosa

59. SCCa, due to betel quid and cigarette use in an Indian man

60. SCCa of the dorsal tongue. Mild dysplasia 10 years earlier.

61. SCCa of the tongue treated as infection over several months

62. SCCa of tongue thought to be due to a foreign body

63. SCCa, massive lesion of the lower lip. Non-treatable.

64. SCCa of the gingiva. Prior biopsy suggested dysplasia.

65. SCCa of tongue in a 36-year-old woman

66. SCCa mistaken for abscess in a 19-year-old male

67. SCCa of the cheek in a man who used alternative treatments

68. Verrucous Ca is managed with radiation in an older man

69. Verrucous Ca is seen in the initial incisional biopsy…

Section 12: Melanoma

70. Oral melanoma in an edentulous man

Section 13: Malignancies of Osseous Differentiation

71. Osteosarcoma affecting a woman with Turner syndrome

72. Osteosarcoma, massive, of a woman’s mandible

73. Osteosarcoma, referred by the woman’s dentist

Section 14: Hematopoietic Malignancies

74. Lymphoma causing palatal swelling

75. Lymphoma causing a posterior maxillary mass

76. Granulocytic sarcoma in an older man and a teenager

77. Multiple myeloma – presenting as tongue and eyelid nodules of amyloid

78. Multiple myeloma in a man with tongue and neck swelling

Section 15: Other Mesenchymal Malignancies

79. Synovial sarcoma in a woman treated as TMJ dysfunction

Section 16: Salivary Gland Malignancies

80. Mucoepidermoid carcinoma misdiagnosed as a tattoo

81. Mucoepidermoid carcinoma presenting as a tongue nodule

82. Secretory carcinoma seen as a nodule in the buccal vestibule

Section 17: Metastatic Disease

83. Metastatic adenocarcinoma of the colon in a denture patient

84. Metastatic lung carcinoma presenting as a tongue nodule

85. Metastatic nasopharyngeal Ca involving the brain and gingiva

86. Metastatic prostate carcinoma treated endodontically

87. Metastatic renal cell Ca presenting as a large jaw swelling

88. Metastatic malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor in a boy

Section 18: Vesiculobullous Disease

89. Pemphigus vulgaris affecting a 15-year-old boy

90. Mucous membrane pemphigoid leading to blindness

91. Paraneoplastic pemphigoid caused by burn pit exposure

92. Paraneoplastic pemphigus affecting a man with lymphoma

Section 19: Immune-Mediated Disease

93. Geographic tongue affecting a young woman

94. Herpetiform aphthae and coated tongue in a young woman

95. Lichenoid and granulomatous stomatitis in an elderly man

96. Behcet syndrome in a woman with oral sores for months

97. Pyostomatitis vegetans presenting as painful gingival lesions

98. Crohn disease in a man with gingival swelling

99. Crohn disease in a young woman with gingival swelling

100. Cheilitis granulomatosa for years in a young woman

101. Cinnamon reaction of the tongue noted for months

102. Toothpaste reaction on both sides of the tongue

103. Drug reaction causing diffuse oral ulcers for several years

104. Erythema multiforme treated as oral candidiasis

105. Wegener granulomatosis with palatal and gingival lesions

Section 20: Oral Manifestations of Systemic Disease

106. Brown tumor presenting as an enlarging mandibular mass

107. Hypothyroidism in a girl whose teeth were not erupting

108. Burning mouth syndrome in a middle-aged woman

Section 21: Coincidental Cutaneous Lesions

109. Cutaneous sinus of dental origin on the facial skin

110. Recurrent basal cell carcinoma of the forehead

111. Basal cell carcinoma involving the forehead of a student

112. Pigmented basal cell carcinoma of the neck

113. Superficial basal cell carcinoma behind the ear

114. Basal cell carcinoma of the upper lip

115. Recurrent basal cell carcinoma of the nasal ala

116. Melanoma arising in a congenital melanocytic nevus

Product details

  • Edition: 1
  • Latest edition
  • Published: August 14, 2026
  • Language: English

About the author

CA

Carl M. Allen

Dr. Carl M. Allen is Emeritus Professor of the Ohio State University, College of Dentistry, retiring after 36 years of teaching. Following retirement, he practiced with a dermatology group, followed by an otolaryngology group. Two of his former residents took over the practice, and Carl finally retired. Dr. Allen received his DDS from Ohio State in 1975 and trained in oral and maxillofacial pathology at Indiana University from 1978 to 1980. Throughout his career, he has been active in seeing patients clinically who were referred for evaluation of oral disease. He has also actively participated in affiliated oral and maxillofacial biopsy services, allowing him to examine microscopically the tissue sections obtained from the patients he had seen. He has been a Diplomate of the American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology since 1983 and completed a six-year term (1994-2000) as Editor of the American Academy of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology. He was President of the AAOMP in 2004 and was a Director of the American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology from 2005 to 2013. Carl has published over 125 refereed articles in dental and medical journals and has written chapters dealing with oral disease for texts in the fields of otolaryngology, microbiology, dermatology and surgical pathology. Three significant contributions, however, were as a co-editor of the textbook, Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology by Neville, Damm, Allen and Chi, which is in its fifth edition; the Color Atlas of Oral and Maxillofacial Diseases, by the same authors, published in 2019; and author of Oral Disease: Case Studies of Difficult Diagnoses, published in 2026.
Affiliations and expertise
Emeritus Professor, Division of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology and Radiology, College of Dentistry, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA