Spectroscopy: A New Diagnostic Technique for Detection of Potentially Malignant Oral Lesions

The common procedure for detecting potentially malignant (PMOL) or malignant oral lesions consists of visual inspection, followed by biopsy of any suspicious lesions found. However, the processing of biopsy material and the interpretation of the results inevitably leads to diagnostic delay and the added possibility of taking an unrepresentative sample. Therefore, techniques that can distinguish between benign from malignant types in a reliable and noninvasive way would be very useful. This review provides an overview of the literature how spectroscopic techniques are useful and can provide tissue diagnosis in real-time, noninvasively and in situ. Keymessage: Spectroscopic techniques can provide tissue diagnosis in real-time, non-invasively and in situ.