The Role of Toluidine Blue Vital Staining in the Diagnosis of Oral Mucosal Lesions in Dental Practice: A Narrative Review.

Toluidine blue vital staining demonstrated diagnostic sensitivity of 71–95% and specificity of 68–81% for oral mucosal lesions, outperforming visual examination alone but showing trade-offs compared to light-based adjunctive tools. Integration into multimodal diagnostic protocols combining clinical examination, staining, and histopathology optimises detection of high-risk lesions, though limitations include false positives from inflammation and false negatives in hyperkeratotic lesions.

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