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CONSULTANCY IN ORAL PATHOLOGY: CURRENT SCENARIO & FUTURE SCOPE IN INDIA- A Survey Based Study

BACKGROUND- Department of Oral Pathology provides a routine diagnostic pathology service for their associated dental hospitals and a specialist referral service for general histopathologists who may be confronted with unfamiliar lesions in the head ,neck and face regions.Despite literature that have stressed the importance of oral pathology services, there is not much published data on the use of such services by general histopathologists. AIM- The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which individual general histopathologists and other medical professionals are aware of oral pathology as a specialist discipline and whether they perceive a need for, and use of, oral pathology services, to identify lesions of the dental and orofacial tissues which pose diagnostic difficulties. METHODS: A survey-based study was conducted from December 2014 to March 2015. A questionnaire was prepared which was sent to consultant micropathologists in institutes in Navi Mumbai .All the collected data was then tabulated and statistically analyzed. RESULTS: In total, 276 (73%) consultant histopathologists completely filled the questionnaire out of 352, of whom 77% (69/89) were aware of the speciality and 23% (7/30) perceived a need for it,but only23% (7/30) of the consultants refer to oral pathologists. CONCLUSION: General histopathologists are less aware of the services provided by oral pathologists. Thus, there is a need to create awareness of oral pathology services through educational activities of various Associations and reframing the graduate and postgraduate programmes. Key Words: oral pathology, general histopathology, survey, scope, consultancy, speciality.