Misnomers & Misconceptions in Oral Medicine: A Retrospection

The names of diseases are usually derived from languages such as Greek or Latin, and are based on either the etiology, the clinical or the histopathological description of the same. However, some of these terms are misnomers and numerous misconceptions related to a number of diseases are also prevalent, most of which arise from either a lack of understanding of the underlying etiopathogenesis, the histopathology or other related concepts of the disease , whereas some arise due to imprecise translations of the word/words of origin of the name of the disease (etymological errors). The continued use of such erroneous misnomers and misconceptions can give rise to further errors and also pose confusion in the minds of the readers. Here, clinical, histopathological and etymological justifications have been given to correct these misnomers & misconceptions, alongwith alternative terminologies, wherever it was possible.