Elementary lesions of the oral mucosa

Diseases that manifest themselves on the oral mucosa generally produce tissue morphological alterations as clinical signs that are so characteristic, that they have been classified as primitive elementary lesions. Many of these lesions do not retain their original appearance due to causes such as: traumatism, mastication, maceration, movement of the tissues, and time itself; the lesions thus derived from these primitive or primary ones are known as secondary lesions. This labelling is important in terms of order of appearance but not clinical importance, since in many cases these lesions are as useful as the primary ones to help establish a diagnosis.
The primitive lesions that occur most frequently, both on skin and mucosa are: spots, papules, nodules, vesicles, blisters, pustules, keratosis, warts, tubercules, hives and tumors.
The most common secondary lesions of the oral cavity are: erosions, fissueas or cracks, ulcers, ulcerations, scabs, scars y desquamations.
"Elementary lesions are like the letters of the alphabet.  Without a knowledge of them you cannot learn the language of stomatology". David Grinspan     (continue)