An oral biopsy is a surgical procedure in which a small piece of tissue is removed from the your oral cavity so it can be examined under a microscope, usually for the detection of oral cancer. 

If a dentist detects an abnormality in your mouth or if they suspect that you have oral cancer, they will perform a mouth biopsy to confirm or not. Oral biopsies help to determine the cause of lesions in the mouth to help them provide a diagnosis and then the correct treatment. 

Oral Biopsy Procedure

An oral biopsy is usually performed under sedation, either with a local anaesthetic (an injection into the area to numb it) or regionally, with a nerve block technique. The injection takes a couple of minutes to start working and means that the biopsy will be painless. Once the sample is removed it will be sent to a pathologist, where it will be checked for disease.

The small hole where the biopsy was removed from will usually need stitches. The stitches used by a dentist are dissolvable and take around two weeks to disappear. Overall, the whole mouth biopsy procedure lasts roughly 15 minutes. Afterwards, you will be provided with a packet of gauze which you need to change every 20 to 30 minutes throughout the day. 

It is normal to feel some pain and discomfort once the anaesthetic wears off, which can be remedied with simple painkillers such as paracetamol or ibuprofen. For more information on  the procedure, you can read our oral biopsy guide on our blog. Or get in touch with our practice, a member of our team is always happy to provide more advice.