Oral medicine From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigation Jump to search This article is about the dental and medical specialty. For the method of administering a medicine, see Oral administration. Oral medicine (sometimes termed dental medicine , oral and maxillofacial medicine or stomatology ) is a specialty focused on the mouth and nearby structures. It lies at the interface between medicine and dentistry. The specialty is defined within Europe under Directive 2001/19/EC. Contents 1 History 2 Scope 3 Training and practise 3.1 Australia 3.2 Canada 3.3 India 3.4 New Zealand 3.5 UK 3.6 USA 4 See also 5 References 6 External links History [ edit ] The importance of the mouth in medicine has been recognized since the earliest known medical writings. For example, Hippocrates, Galen and others considered the tongue to be a "barometer" of health, and emphasized the diagnostic and prognostic importance of the ...