Division EENT-ORAL: Oral cavity (mouth, tongue, or gums)

Oral cavity infections must meet at least one of the following criteria:

• Patient has organisms cultured from purulent material from tissues of oral cavity

• Patient has an abscess or other evidence of oral cavity infection seen on direct examination, during a surgical operation, or during a histopathologic examination

• Patient has at least one of the following signs or symptoms with no other recognised cause: abscess, ulceration, or raised white patches on inflamed mucosa, or plaques on oral mucosa

AND at least one of the following:

• organisms seen on Gram’s stain

• positive KOH (potassium hydroxide) stain

• multinucleated giant cells seen on microscopic examination of mucosal scrapings

• positive antigen test on oral secretions

• diagnostic single antibody titer (IgM) or four-fold increase in paired sera (IgG) for pathogen

• physician diagnosis of infection and treatment with topical or oral antifungal therapy