Oral medicine

You can be referred to our service by your:

• General dentist
• GP
• Hospital clinician, where relevant

Please call the patient booking hub: 0114 2717800

Please bring with you:

• A list of your current medications.
• A list of your current health conditions and previous significant procedures.
• Details of any allergies that you have.
• Details of any other health professionals involved in your care.
• Any previous diagnoses, test results or treatments that relate to your current condition

The Oral Medicine Department is located on the first floor of the Charles Clifford Dental Hospital, Sheffield, S10 2SZ. The main entrance to the Charles Clifford Dental Hospital is on Wellesley Road.

Charles Clifford Dental Hospital is situated 1.25 miles from and to the west of the city centre.

The hospital is served by several bus routes. A guide is available from Travel South Yorkshire (hyperlink). Supertram can be used to reach Charles Clifford Dental Hospital, the nearest stop (University) is a 10-minute walk.

There is no car parking facilities at Charles Clifford Dental Hospital. There are facilities provided by the Royal Hallamshire Hospital and Jessop Wing Hospital. There is also a Q-Park on Durham Road, close to Sheffield Children’s Hospital. Car parks are well signposted.

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An appointment in the Oral Medicine Department will involve a clinical examination of the face, neck and mouth.

We may also perform further tests if this is appropriate. These tests might include:

• Blood tests
• Swabs or mouth rinses
• Photographs
• Biopsies of the mouth
• X-rays of the teeth or jaws
• Ultrasound scanning of the face and neck
• 3D scans, such as CT or MRI

The treatment that we offer will be personalised to you and your condition, but might include:

• Medicines
• Minor surgery
• Cryotherapy
• Steroid injections

Biopsies, scans and procedures are typically performed at a separate appointment to the initial examination.

The Charles Clifford Dental Hospital is connected to The School of Clinical Dentistry and students often work on our clinics, supervised by our senior clinical staff.

After your appointment, we will write to you with a summary of your visit.

If you need a follow-up appointment, our reception team will contact you with the details of your next appointment.

Find an NHS dentist

British & Irish Society for Oral Medicine

British Association of Dermatologists

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The British Pain Society

The Pain Toolkit

Where do we provide care?

The majority of care is provided within the Oral Medicine Department at the Charles Clifford Dental Hospital. Patients under 16 years of age will likely be seen in the Paediatric Dentistry Department at the Charles Clifford Dental Hospital.

Who can access our service?

The Oral Medicine department offers diagnosis and management for all patients with suspected disease of the oral mucosa or salivary glands, and oral manifestations of systemic disease, including:

• Oral conditions requiring immunosuppression.
• Oral ulceration.
• Oral involvement of dermatological conditions, including lichen planus, mucous membrane pemphigoid, pemphigus vulgaris, exfoliative cheilitis and hypersensitivity reactions.
• Oral mucosal lumps, including mucoceles and vascular malformations.
• Oral hyperpigmentation.
• Oral fungal, bacterial and viral infection, including oral candidiasis and angular cheilitis.
• Sjogren’s syndrome or other salivary gland manifestations of systemic disease.
• Oral potentially malignant disorders, including leukoplakia, proliferative verrucous leukoplakia, erythroplakia, oral submucous fibrosis, actinic cheilitis and chronic graft-versus-host disease.
• Oral manifestations of inflammatory bowel disease, including orofacial granulomatosis.
• Oral manifestation of Behcet’s.
• Burning mouth syndrome, oral dysaesthesia and chronic orofacial pain.
• Congenital oral mucosal pathologies.

We do not provide routine dental care or provision of dental appliances, such as mouth guards. Many of the conditions that we manage are chronic and we will often discharge patients to primary care after providing a diagnosis, if their oral disease is mild or stable.

Referrals must be made on the Charles Clifford Dental Service Referral Form: Dental hospital referral (for healthcare professionals only) 

The Consultant in Oral Medicine may, based on their clinical judgment and experience, elect to accept or decline referrals based on the specified referral criteria. Inappropriate or inadequate referrals will be returned. Your compliance with the above guidelines will avoid unnecessary delays in patient care.

Patients with suspected head and neck cancer should be referred to Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery, using the appropriate 2 week wait form.