Common Clinical Signs and Phenomena in Oral Diseases

In the diagnosis of oral and maxillofacial diseases, clinicians use specific terms to describe unique physical findings and reactions. Many of these are eponymous signs—named after the physicians who discovered them—that help identify conditions ranging from Pemphigus to Systemic Sclerosis. There are two tables adapted from Clinical Guide to Oral Diseases listing common clinical signs and phenomena, their definitions, and the oral or systemic diseases associated with them.

Table 1: Clinical Signs

Name	Clinical findings	Diseases
Asboe-Hansen sign	Blister spreading with pressure	Pemphigus, bullous pemphigoid
Auspitz sign	Pin-point bleeding after removal of scales	Psoriasis
Barnett’s sign	Ridging and tightening of neck	Scleroderma
Buttonhole sign	Invagination of neurofibromas with pressure	Neurofibromatosis-NF1
Crowe’s sign	Axillary freckles	Neurofibromatosis-NF1
Forchheimer’s sign	Petechiae or enanthema on soft palate	Infectious mononucleosis; rubella
Gorlin’s sign	Tongue touching the nose	Ehlers-Danlos syndrome
Meffert’s sign	Ectopic sebaceous glands on lips causing a lipstick-like mark left on the rim of a glass mug after consuming a hot beverage	Fordyce disease
Nikolsky’s sign	Peeling and new bullae formation with rubbing off the unaffected skin or oral mucosa	Pemphigus
Reverse Nikolsky’s sign	Pseudoepithelial peeling	Toxic epidermal necrolysis; staphylococcal scaled skin
Osler’s sign	Blue-black sclera	Alkaptonuria
Stafne’s sign	Widening of the periodontal ligament space	Systemic sclerosis

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Table 2: Clinical Phenomena

Name	Clinical findings	Diseases
Bell’s phenomenon	Inability to close the affected eye	Facial nerve palsy
Brocq’s phenomenon	Subepidermal hemorrhage, which occurs on careful scraping of a classical lesion of skin disease	Lichen planus
Isotopic phenomenon	Occurrence of a different or unrelated dermatological disease at the site of the healed disease (commonly herpes zoster)	Herpes zoster
Kasabach-Merrit phenomenon	Triad of vascular tumors, thrombocytopenia, and bleeding diathesis.	Infantile hemangiomas, Blue rubber bleb nevus
Koebner phenomenon	Development a new similar lesions along lines of trauma	Psoriasis, lichen planus, vitiligo
Koebner inverse phenomenon	A skin condition which inhibits the development of another autoimmune disease	Psoriasis and alopecia areata
Koebner remote reverse phenomenon	Spontaneous repigmentation is seen in distant patches after autologous skin graft surgery	Vitiligo
Koebner reverse phenomenon	Clearance of an area of skin disease after trauma	Psoriasis
Pathergy phenomenon	An erythematous papule of more than 2 mm at the site of a non-specific trauma like pricking with a 20–22-gauge needle	Behcet’s disease, Sweet’s syndrome
Raynaud’s phenomenon	Episodic changes in blood flow in the cutaneous vasculature in cold weather	Connective tissue diseases, Sjogren’s syndrome
Rebound phenomenon	Reappearance of a skin disease after stopping steroid treatment	Various dermatosis