Book excerpt: The ADA Practical Guide to Soft Tissue Oral Disease is the perfect tool to aid in identifying, diagnosing and treating soft tissue oral disease in everyday clinical practice. Focusing on the clinical aspects of management required by the general dental team, this book expertly guides readers through screening examinations, description and documentation, differential diagnosis, and guidelines for observation and referral. Ideal as a clinical handbook or review guide, The ADA Practical Guide to Soft Tissue Oral Disease is replete with color photos, case studies and discussion, and synopses of best current treatments based on up-to-date literature. Section 1 includes basic information of how to most effectively and efficiently perform a complete and thorough head and neck soft tissue screening examination. Section 2 presents an overview of the top 40 oral soft tissue lesions, as well as several less common but life-threatening conditions such as oral cancer and infections. Section 3 is composed of a series of brief patient clinical scenarios with diagnostic exercises for self-test and evaluation by providing discussion of the correct diagnosis and distractors.