This article first appeared in the newsletter, DE's Breakthrough Clinical with Stacey Simmons, DDS. Subscribe here.
A healthy 66-year-old white male presents to your clinic as a new patient who hasn’t seen a dentist in about six years. In the course of an otherwise normal cleaning, exam, and routine radiography, a large radiolucency is found in the left mid-body of the mandible. The patient denies any pain in the area, hasn’t noticed any new swelling, and denies paresthesia of his left inferior alveolar nerve (V3). His exam shows he is missing tooth No. 19. He explains that it was extracted by his previous dentist about seven years ago.
The rest of his dental exam was normal; there were no oral lesions or vestibular swelling. Extraorally there was no visual or palpable swelling in the area, and no cervical lymphadenopathy.
What is the next step in the evaluation of this patient? What would be the preliminary diagnosis you would think about in a situation such as this?
Send your answers to [email protected] or join our Facebook group to discuss this oral pathology case and more.MORE PATHOLOGY CASES . . . Do you have an interesting oral pathology case you would like to share with Breakthrough’s readers? If so, submit a clinical radiograph or high-resolution photograph, a patient history, diagnosis, and treatment rendered to: [email protected]. We will let you know if we select your case!This article first appeared in the newsletter, DE's Breakthrough Clinical with Stacey Simmons, DDS. Subscribe here.
