Mouthwash, mouth rinse, oral rinse, or mouth bath is a liquid which is held in the mouth passively or swilled around the mouth by contraction of the perioral muscles and/or movement of the head, and may be gargled, where the head is tilted back and the liquid bubbled at the back of the mouth.
Oral candidiasis, also known as oral thrush among other names, is candidiasis that occurs in the mouth. That is, oral candidiasis is a mycosis of Candida species on the mucous membranes of the mouth.
Oral leukoplakia is a potentially malignant disorder affecting the oral mucosa. It is defined as "essentially an oral mucosal white lesion that cannot be considered as any other definable lesion." Oral leukoplakia is a white patch or plaque that develops in the oral cavity and is strongly associated with smoking. Leukoplakia is a firmly attached white patch on a mucous membrane which is associated with increased risk of cancer. The edges of the lesion are typically abrupt and the lesion changes with time. Advanced forms may develop red patches. There are generally no other symptoms. It usually occurs within the mouth, although sometimes mucosa in other parts of the gastrointestinal tract, urinary tract, or genitals may be affected.
Hairy leukoplakia is a white patch on the side of the tongue with a corrugated or hairy appearance. It is caused by Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and occurs usually in persons who are immunocompromised, especially those with human immunodeficiency virus infection/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS). The white lesion, which cannot be scraped off, is benign and does not require any treatment, although its appearance may have diagnostic and prognostic implications for the underlying condition.
The National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) is a branch of the U.S. National Institutes of Health. The institute aims to improve the oral, dental, and craniofacial health through research and the distribution of important health information to the American people.
An oral medicine or stomatology doctor/dentist has received additional specialized training and experience in the diagnosis and management of oral mucosal abnormalities including oral cancer, salivary gland disorders, temporomandibular disorders and facial pain, taste and smell disorders; and recognition of the oral manifestations of systemic and infectious diseases. It lies at the interface between medicine and dentistry. An oral medicine doctor is trained to diagnose and manage patients with disorders of the orofacial region, essentially as a "physician of the mouth".
Biodontics dentistry was founded by Dr. Edward Rossomando in 2001 as an area of oral health. Biodontics is funded by the United States National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR). The purpose of Biodontics is to expand the dental profession in its research capacity, skill sets, and entrepreneurship. An educational program known as the Biodontics Educational Program is held at the University of Connecticut School of Dental Medicine every July and assembles business leaders, entrepreneurs, management executives, scientists, architects, and dental manufacturers to give presentations and lectures to students from all dental schools.
The Creighton University School of Dentistry is the dental school of Creighton University. It is located in the city of Omaha, Nebraska. It was one of the first dental schools in the United States, having been established in 1905.
The University of Washington School of Dentistry is the dental school of the University of Washington. It is located in Seattle, and is the only school of dentistry in the state of Washington. The school emphasizes research in anxiety, orofacial pain, tissue repair and regeneration, immune response to bacteria, and practice based research.
The UNC Claude A. Adams Jr. and Grace Phillips Adams School of Dentistry is the school of dentistry of the University of North Carolina. It is located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. It is currently ranked second among all dental schools in the U.S. and is consistently ranked among the best in the world according to two independent rankings. Founded in 1950 as the UNC School of Dentistry, it was the only dental school in North Carolina until 2011, when East Carolina University School of Dental Medicine became the second. In 2019, the school received its largest single donation of $27.68 million, resulting in a name change to honor Dr. Claude A. Adams Jr. and Grace Phillips Adams. Dr. Adams was a North Carolina dentist that practiced in Durham until his death in 2018.
Salivary gland diseases (SGDs) are multiple and varied in cause. There are three paired major salivary glands in humans: the parotid glands, the submandibular glands, and the sublingual glands. There are also about 800–1,000 minor salivary glands in the mucosa of the mouth. The parotid glands are in front of the ears, one on side, and secrete mostly serous saliva, via the parotid ducts, into the mouth, usually opening roughly opposite the second upper molars. The submandibular gland is medial to the angle of the mandible, and it drains its mixture of serous and mucous saliva via the submandibular duct into the mouth, usually opening in a punctum in the floor of mouth. The sublingual gland is below the tongue, on the floor of the mouth; it drains its mostly mucous saliva into the mouth via about 8–20 ducts, which open along the plica sublingualis, a fold of tissue under the tongue.
Martha J. Somerman is an internationally known researcher and educator in Medicine, focusing on defining the key regulators controlling development, maintenance, and regeneration of dental, oral, and craniofacial tissues. She is currently Chief Lab of Laboratory of Oral Connective Tissue Biology (LOCTB) at NIH's National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) and Director of the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) located in Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
Human immunodeficiency virus salivary gland disease, is swelling of the salivary glands and/or xerostomia in individuals infected with human immunodeficiency virus.
Oral manifestations of systematic disease are signs and symptoms of disease occurring elsewhere in the body detected in the oral cavity and oral secretions. High blood sugar can be detected by sampling saliva. Saliva sampling may be a non-invasive way to detect changes in the gut microbiome and changes in systemic disease. Another example is tertiary syphilis, where changes to teeth can occur. Syphilis infection can be associated with longitudinal furrows of the tongue.
Stephen James Challacombe FRC(Path), FDSRCS, FMedSci, is professor of oral medicine at King's College in London, best known for research in oromucosal immunology and for developing the Challacombe scale for measuring the extent of dryness of the mouth. He led the team that laid out research challenges of global health inequalities and oral health, particularly relating to the oral manifestations of HIV.
John S. Greenspan, was an academic dentist/scientist and university administrator. His degrees and diplomas include BSc, BDS, PhD, FRCPath, FDSRCS (Eng). He was the Director-Emeritus of the AIDS Research Institute at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He was also the founding Director of the UCSF AIDS Specimen Bank (1982-2017) and of the UCSF Oral AIDS Center (1986–2005).
Niki M. Moutsopoulos is a Greek periodontist and immunologist. She is a senior investigator in the oral immunity and infection section at the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research. Moutsopoulos specializes in oral immunology and periodontitis. Her research program focuses on host-microbial interactions that can drive chronic inflammatory responses and tissue destruction in the oral cavity.
Rena D'Souza is a clinician-scientist and the Director of the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research. She was formerly the assistant vice president for academic affairs and education for health sciences at the University of Utah where she was also a Professor of Dentistry in the School of Dentistry and a Professor of Neurobiology and Anatomy in the School of Medicine.
A. Isabel Garcia is an American dentist and academic administrator serving as dean of the University of Florida College of Dentistry since 2015. She was deputy director of the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) from 2007 to 2014. Garcia was the acting NIDCR director from 2010 to 2011. She was a Rear Admiral Lower Half in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.
Cecile Arlene Feldman-Zohn is an American dental scientist who is a professor and Dean of the School of Dental Medicine at the Rutgers University. Her research considers dental informatics and health services research. She was elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2020.
