Oral Tuberculosis with Advanced Diagnostic Trends

Abstract

ABSTRACT Tuberculosis (TB) is a universally known chronic infectious disease that can affect any part of the body including oral cavity. Though usually affects the lungs, tubercle bacilli can spread hematogenously to involve other parts of the body. Oral lesions, although rare, are very important for early diagnosis and interception of primary TB. Here, we report a case of oral TB that manifested as painless extraoral swelling on the right side of the mandible which was initially small, later increased in size within 3 months. The patient was asymptomatic for pulmonary TB. Excisional biopsy was done. The histopathological section showed granulomatous lesion, and Ziehl—Neelsen (ZN) stain showed acid-fast magenta color rods suggesting tuberculous infection. This prompted us to validate with other advanced diagnostic technique, such as polymerized chain reaction (PCR) for tubercle bacilli. Thus, we emphasize on few advanced diagnostic techniques in the detection of the TB. How to cite this article Pavithra V, Nambiar S, Augustine D, Sowmya SV, Kumar KV, Prasad K, Rao RS. Oral Tuberculosis with Advanced Diagnostic Trends. World J Dent 2016;7(4):203-207.