Oral Examination

The oral examination in Dentistry means dental checkup, and this is a process used by the dentists to carefully take a review on oral health. The oral examination involves typically the entire mouth, as a first-time visit or a regular 6-month check-up. 

There are two main types of oral examination: 
1. Extraoral examination 
2. Intraoral examination 

The extraoral examination involves the examination of the head and neck which is the integral part of oral examination to provide valuable information the overall assessment of possible oral diseases. 

As a dentist, you can also examine the cervical lymph glands, by standing behind the individual and slightly flexing and bending the neck to the side so that the sternocleidomastoid muscle becomes relaxed and palpation and identification of any enlarged nodes will be easier. 

The submandibular, submental and upper deep cervical lymph nodes are commonly involved in the extra oral examination. 
The examination itself should be performed in an adequate way and with an adequate lighting from an external source such as fixed or head-mounted examination lights or hand-held flashlights, supplemented by room lighting. It is also very important that the procedure of the examination should be explained to the person and every effort should be taken to ensure that the subject is relaxed and not anxious. The anxiety during the examination may cause a temporary dryness of the mouth, and the palpation should be carried out wearing gloves. 

The extraoral examination involves the following sequence: 
-- general overview of the skin areas including the head, neck and limbs 
-- perioral skin areas like in nose, cheeks and lips, by checking if there is any change of color, if there is a crest or fissures. 
-- lymph nodes in head and neck. The size is till 1 cm and they should be constancy and movable. 
-- The cutaneous (skin) parts of the upper and lower lips. 
-- Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) and parotid gland region. 

The intraoral examination should be more comprehensive than described. It should include the examination of the intraoral soft tissues like the examination of: 
-- Oral mucosa 
-- Gingiva 
-- Tongue, floor and palate part.
-- Lips 
-- Salivary glands 
-- Frenulum of lips 
-- Frenulum of Tongue 
-- Bite assessment


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