Daryl E. Malena DDS  Periodontics
10838 Old Mill Road
Omaha, Nebraska 68154
402 330 4100

The term biopsy may sound ominous to you, but it only means taking a sample of your tissue and sending it to a pathology laboratory for further study, and it does not always mean we are looking for cancer.  In fact, most of the time that we use this procedure it is to help diagnose an inflammatory condition.  Some kinds of biopsies don't even require an anesthetic because they only involve scraping the tissue with a brush.  

Excisional biopsies involve removing all of the tissue in question and sending it to the laboratory.  Incisional biopsies remove only a part of the questionable tissue, and include an area that looks normal to aid in the diagnosis.  Cytology studies involve just scraping the area in order to study the surface cells.  Recently a computer aided cytology study has become available called the OralCDx that helps us decide if an area needs a surgical biopsy.   

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