We are grateful for the positive reception within the dental and medical communities of this textbook’s first edition. In this second edition its intention remains the same – to be a practical guide and reference source for the basic clinical aspects of soft tissue oral and maxillofacial disease. We also appreciate the constructive feedback received by colleagues that aided in this edition’s revisions.

The names and organization of the book’s chapters remain the same. Within each chapter the cited references and/or recommended readings have been updated; however, in addition, the end of each chapter now contains self‐assessment multiple‐choice questions with feedback comments on the correct answer and distractors. The revisions of Chapter 1 notably include a number of newly marketed diagnostic adjunctive devices and methods. Chapter 3 provides updated information on some of its pathologic conditions, particularly the nature of hemangiomas versus vascular malformations and the increasing clinical impact the human papillomavirus type 16 has on malignant transformation (i.e. squamous cell carcinoma) of specialized oropharyngeal epithelium as opposed to the oral cavity proper. Chapter 5 introduces the term “oral potentially malignant disorders” and initial commercial products designed to add additional information to their predicted clinical behavior and management. Appendix B has been extensively updated to reflect the ever‐changing drug formulary available to the clinician to treat oral soft tissue diseases. Lastly, some of the photographic images have been added or updated to enhance a lesion’s features.

We hope our efforts have enhanced the utility of this textbook for your chairside evaluation, differential diagnosis formulation, establishment of provisional and final diagnosis, and management of your patient’s diagnosed oral mucosal diseases.

This textbook is intended to be a practical guide and reference source for the basic clinical aspects of soft tissue oral and maxillofacial disease. It is not intended to be an all‐encompassing tome of oral pathology but rather to include those aspects of this dental specialty that are its most important foundational information and the most frequently encountered orofacial soft tissue diseases. The book is intended for health‐care practitioners whose occupation involves encountering a variety of conditions and diseases of the oral cavity and its contiguous anatomic structures; it is not intended to be a reference source for oral medicine (i.e. details of the medical aspects of a particular disease within the oral cavity).

We envision this book not as one to reside on a clinician’s library shelf gathering dust and rarely referred to, but rather one used regularly within the dental operatory to help the clinician’s decision making: that is, deciding what is the best thing to do for the patient when a pathologic condition is initially discovered, how to determine its most likely provisional diagnosis or differential diagnosis, whether to biopsy or refer for consultation by a dental or medical specialist, and how to most accurately and effectively communicate that information to the patient so the patient can give informed consent about his or her treatment course and management.

Since 1984, when we began our residency training in oral pathology at Emory University’s School of Dentistry (Atlanta, GA), we have increasingly recognized specific essentials of oral pathology that need to be learned, understood, and used by all dentists; furthermore, we have witnessed common diagnostic pitfalls and management mistakes. This book is the culmination of our cumulative and collective experiential wisdom gained during our training as well as our subsequent years of being in teaching institutions. By interacting with dentists, with dental and dental hygiene students, and with physicians and patients in clinical and educational settings as well as by participation in active oral pathology biopsy services and clinical consultation clinics, we have become aware of the lesions commonly encountered but misunderstood by them or unknown to them.

We are deeply indebted to the team at Wiley Blackwell who initiated contact with us to consider this endeavor: to Ms. Shelby Allen and Rick Blanchette, whose vision and interest in our continuing education materials sparked an interest to share its content with a wider audience of dental practitioners and whose shepherding of the first edition resulted in its enthusiastic use and opportunity to create a second edition. For this second edition we give thanks to the guidance of Ms. Erica Judisch (Executive Editor, Veterinary Medicine and Dentistry), Ms. Anupama Sreekanth (Project Editor), Ms. Susan Engelken for cover design, and Ms. Natasha Wu (Assistant Production Editor).

At the American Dental Association (ADA), we thank Dr. Pamela Porembski (DDS, Senior Manager, Council on Dental Practice), Carolyn Tatar (Senior Manager, Product Development), and Dr. Kathleen O’Laughlin (DMD, Executive Director) for their belief in this initial endeavor, supplying support and assistance and working with many other members of the ADA to gain the project’s acceptance and affiliation.

We also thank our colleagues at the various institutions we have worked at, as they have shared their knowledge and teaching materials with us. In particular, Drs. Robert Goode, Lynn Solomon, and Eleni Gagari were involved in many of the materials used in constructing the content of Chapter 7. In addition, we are very grateful to our colleagues throughout the world who have shared their unrestricted‐use clinical images with us at regional and national oral pathology meetings. We thank Ms. Heidi Price for creating the original line drawings of Chapters 1 and 2.

Last, we thank our many patients and their clinicians who shared their patients and/or their biopsied tissue with us and our students, whose pathology questions spurred us to either respond from memory or seek additional references in order to answer.