Misnomers in oral pathology.
BACKGROUND
Diseases which involve the oral cavity usually derive their names from either Greek or Latin. These terms are customarily based on etiology or description of the lesion. However, because of various reasons, some of these terms are misnomers.


OBJECTIVE
To review commonly encountered misnomers in oral pathology.


CONCLUSIONS
Most of the misnomers encountered in oral pathology may arise from lack of understanding of underlying etiology, pathogenesis, histopathology, and/or concepts. Some misnomers are due to imprecise translations from word origins, etymological bungles, and/or factual errors. Clinical, histopathological, and/or etymological explanations are used to analyze and elucidate the nature of these misnomers. Alternative terms, where possible, have been suggested.
Subramanyam
R V
RV
Department of Oral Pathology, Drs Sudha and Nageswara Rao Siddhartha Institute of Dental Sciences, Chinoutpalli, Andhra Pradesh, India. subrarv@gmail.com
D004850:Eponyms; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D009059:Mouth Diseases; D009275:Names; D010339:Pathology, Oral; D009626:Terminology as Topic; D014177:Translations