Diagnostic Techniques

Question 1

_____ info:
Information that can be measured or
perceived by the investigating clinician;
i.e. signs
e.g. size , color, duration , consistency,
surface contour, etc…

Answer 1

Objective

Question 2

______ info
Patient’s own interpretation of a clinical
circumstance; i.e., symptoms
Relies on neurologic and psychologic
experiences
e.g. patient awareness of presence of a
lesion, pain intensity, pain quality
(stabbing, burning, shocking, etc…),
temperature, etc…

Answer 2

Subjective

Question 3

• Orderly sequential approach
• Gathering and analyzing data
• Knowledge and experience enable
recognition of abnormal findings
• Include and/or exclude disease processes
based on an educated assessment of the
process

Answer 3

Differential diagnosis

Question 4

• compressing tissue with a glass slide to
determine vascular nature of a lesion
Mainly use perio probe in dentistry

Answer 4

Diascopy

Question 5

feel and press a lesion
to yield information
about texture,
consistency,
temperature and
function

Answer 5

Palpation

Question 6

• palpation with an
instrument
• instruments include
perio probe, caries
explorer, needle tip,

Answer 6

Probing

Question 7

• striking tissues with
fingers or an
instrument and
listening to resulting
pressure changes in
the tissues
• eg. tooth ankylosis

Answer 7

Percussion

Question 8

withdrawl of fluids
from a body cavity
• E.g., needle aspiration
of cysts, vascular
tumors, purulent
swellings, etc…

Answer 8

Aspiration

Question 9

• listening for sounds
within the body

Answer 9

Auscultation

Question 10

____ biopsy : remove whole lesion

Answer 10

Excisional biopsy

Question 11

____ biopsy: remove a representative part of the lesion

Answer 11

Incisional biopsy

Question 12

___ biopsy: withdraw fluid and evaluate fluid from lesion

Answer 12

Aspiration biopsy

Question 13

____ biopsy: fine needle is placed into a solid mass and aspirated

Answer 13

Needle biopsy

Question 14

Indications
• To determine the cause of tissue
enlargement.
• To distinguish between benign and
malignant processes.
• To stage metastatic cancer
Limitations
• More technique sensitive with
additional preservatives and lab
processing
• does not localize cells to affected
tissues
• appositional information to
adjacent tissues is lost

Answer 14

Needle biopsy

Question 15

• Indications
–Innocuous lesion
–Suspicious lesion with negative biopsy
–Patient refuses biopsy
–Follow-up of treated malignancy
–Lesion where patient is a poor risk for
surgery
• Contraindications
– Keratotic or crusty mucosa
– Red, vesicular or velvety mucosa
– Submucosal swelling with normal mucosa
– Suspicion of malignancy

Answer 15

Oral exfoliative cytology

Question 16

• Indications
–Life threatening infection
–Unsuccessful previous antibiotic therapy
–Immunosuppressed patient
• Limited use in dentistry
–Difficult for anaerobic conditions
–Turnover time too long; best to attempt
trial therapies of certain antibiotics as
results may occur quicker than the time
interval of the test

Answer 16

Culture and sensitivity testing