It can be inferred that diet may play a role in the accumulation of calculus, but a diet based on live prey does not protect cats against periodontal disease.

There are around 8,500 new cases of oral squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) diagnosed in the UK each year and the incidence appears to be increasing. Although surgical and non-surgical treatment options have improved significantly in the last few decades, five-year survival has not, with an average five-year survival of 56% in the UK. Providing patients have access, there are frequent opportunities for oral cancer screening by their general dental practitioner. We present two cases of SCC managed in our department, both of whom were referred following a protracted period of review in general dental practice, where the initial 'benign diagnoses' were not re-evaluated during this time. This delay can considerably impact on patient outcomes, including survival. We outline each patient's clinical course, and key learning points to help dental practitioners detect lesions that require prompt referral to the oral and maxillofacial service for urgent investigation.

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Oral focal mucinosis (OFM) is an extremely rare, benign oral soft tissue condition; less than 10 documented cases have been reported in the literature in patients under 18 years old. OFM has an unknown aetiology and predominantly presents in the fourth and fifth decades. The pathogenesis of OFM may be due to fibroblast overproduction of hyaluronic acid. Clinically, it remains almost impossible to diagnose definitively, due to its lack of pathognomonic features, therefore such lesions may have multiple differential diagnoses and histological analysis is essential to confirm OFM. We present an unusual presentation of OFM in a 14-year-old female patient. Following excision, focal myxoid degeneration of the connective tissue was apparent. This case highlights this rare condition for consideration in differential diagnosis of clinically similar lesions.

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