0:00
My name is Palle Holmstrup.
I am professor and section head at the School of Dentistry, University of Copenhagen.
And today, we will discuss oral leukoplakia which is a premalignant lesion.
0:17
Oral premalignancy is an important part of dentist activity.
The basic concept of oral premalignancy is to
identify lesions and prevent them from development of cancer.
0:33
The most important and most common premalignant lesion
in the oral cavity is oral leukoplakia.
Oral leukoplakia has been defined in various ways,
usually by the characteristics.
It's defined as a clinical term for a predominantly white lesion of
the oral mucosa that cannot be characterized as any other definable lesion.
It's somehow a strange definition to define
a lesion by the characteristics that it doesn't have,
but several workshops have tried to improve
this definition without any significant result.
So we have to live with this definition of oral leukoplakia.
1:20
The malignant transformation rate of oral leukoplakia has been
reported at annual rates of 2-3%.
And you can ask what is the cause,
and you can also ask whether we can prevent it.
And this will be addressed in the lecture.
1:40
This is an oral leukoplakia.
It is small, red areas which is why it is a non-homogeneous leukoplakia,
demonstrates that it develops a carcinoma after three years of follow-up.
