Oral Squamous cell carcinoma Managed by specialists from different disciplines

BMJ 1994;308:1103 (23 April)

Letters

Oral Squamous cell carcinoma Managed by specialists from different disciplines

EDITOR, - Iain Hutchison states that "only six British medicalschools offer any formal teaching in mouth examination by oralsurgeons" and that "any patient with a red or white intraoralpatch should attend their local oral surgery department as amatter of some urgency."¹

The investigation and management of cancer of the mouth andjaws is not the sole remit of oral surgeons but is an area inwhich there is an interface with many other specialties. Asmedical students in Glasgow, we were taught the examinationof the oral cavity and the management of intraoral carcinomaby general surgeons; ear, nose, and throat surgeons; plasticsurgeons; and radiotherapists. In Newcastle Medical School,examination of the oral cavity and the management of oral malignancyis taught to the medical and dental students in lectures andon the wards by ear, nose, and throat surgeons; plastic surgeons;and radiotherapists. Students . . . [Full text of this article]