In Vivo Reflectance Confocal Microscopy for Oral Mucosa Assessment

Abstract

On the basis of its proven effectiveness in healthy and pathological skin imaging [1–6], in vivo reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM) may also be advantageously used to evaluate healthy and pathological oral mucosa as previously reported in literature [7, 8]. The possibility of a non-invasive imaging of oral mucosa represents an interesting solution for screening, diagnosis and follow-up of that small mucosal sites where biopsy—representing at the moment the gold standard for diagnosis in stomatology—is accompanied by defects as time consuming (10 days or more) for histopathological analysis, morbidity and postoperative complications due to the surgical wound, low patient’s compliance and need for multiple biopsies for extended or plurifocal lesions. Thus, in order to enhance the diagnostic management of oral mucosa diseases, RCM is a valid support to orient the clinicians toward a non-invasive diagnosis. Potentially, each oral disease could benefit by the use of a non-invasive device that allows to reduce the diagnosis timing, to be less invasive and more comfortable and to evaluate the follow-up and the drug response.