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Background: We aimed to present a minimally invasive clinical approach to collect a suitable sample for the laboratory diagnosis of desquamative gingivitis. Materials and Methods: The proposed technique involves Nikolsky's test for the collection of tissue samples. It consists of the histopathological analysis of the bullous membrane formed in cases with positive Nikolsky's sign (NS). Three patients without a previous diagnosis of the disease agreed to undergo this protocol before a biopsy. Results: The diagnoses of the three cases reported here were mucous pemphigoid (MP), pemphigus vulgaris (PV), and lichen planus (LP). The tissue samples collected using this technique were sufficient to microscopically observe partial-thickness epithelium (diagnosing PV) or full-thickness epithelium (diagnosing MP). The diagnosis of LP was only possible by conventional biopsy. Conclusion: We observed, for different cases, some advantages of the proposed technique: minimally invasive, potentially superior to exfoliative cytology, easily performed, and with low costs.

The present paper draw the attention of clinicians to investigate multiple slices of the computed tomography (CT) scan looking for a safe diagnosis of the so-called Garrè's osteomyelitis (GO) of jaws, a not uncommon disease characterized by astonishing bone growth. We report a case involving the left mandible of a 12-year-old girl presenting with a bony enlargement at left mandible. Initial examination revealed carious process of tooth 36 with radiographic apical rarefaction. However, we need to take care with this diagnosis because other aggressive diseases may cause bone enlargement mimicking GO. We observed here that careful examination of CT slices must be elucidative. In the present case, we observed the formation of a hypodense channel between periapical disease and the bone growth, through CT, thus supporting the pathophysiologic conditions for GO and allowing a safer decision to make the intervention restricted to tooth.