Benign, Premalignant, and Malignant Lesions of the Oral Cavity Benign Soft Tissue Lesions

ranging in color from pink to white, ridged or wrinkled exophytic, and pedunculated lesion. When these lesions occur on the surface of the lips, alveolar gingivae, or palate, they are well keratinized, while on nonkeratinized mucosal surfaces, they appear soft and pink/red. HPV is DNA virus detected in approximately 50% of squamous papillomas. The common wart, verruca vulgaris, is generally found on the skin (sometimes in association with similar skin lesions, often on the fingers) and is caused by the cutaneous HPV subtypes 2 and 57. When involving the oral cavity, these warts are similar in appearance to viral papillomas and tend to involve the lips, gingivae, and hard palate. Oral papillomas and warts are clinically similar, and local excision is desirable. Care should be exercised when removing HPV-related oral lesions with electrocautery or laser as there exists the possibility of aerosolizing HPV particles. Although these lesions are probably infectious, a history of direct contact with another infected person is unusual, except in the case of multiple and often recurrent oral warts associated with sexual contact or maternal transmission, referred to as condyloma acuminatum