In vivo confocal microscopy in oral pathology: a step towards optical biopsy

Abstract

A wide variety of primitive and secondary conditions, pathologies, and lesions may affect the oral mucosa.For most of them, biopsy and histopathology are mandatory for diagnostic and prognostic purposes. Chronicinflammatory and dysimmune diseases require long-life follow-up and various biopsies along with the time,as well in the case of tumors, where the timing of early diagnosis and the discovery of relapses may be sloweddown by patient and work delays. In vivo confocal microscopy (CM) offers additional real-time informationon the cytological and histological features of the epithelial lesions. The present work summarized theCM application in oral pathology and its future perspectives. In vivo CM could be usefully introduced inthe clinical practice to noninvasively monitor any histological changes occurring in the oral mucosa, thusshortening the diagnostic times, and improving the patients’ compliance to follow-ups.