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A 56-year-old white man presented at our dental clinic for routine care. The intraoral examination revealed an asymptomatic red lesion with white vesicle-like areas on the right side of the soft palate. The extraoral examination was normal, and regional lymph nodes were nonpalpable. The patient's medical history included liver cirrhosis and pancreatitis. He also had a 30-year history of alcohol misuse (1-5 drinks per day) and a 30-pack-year smoking history. (The patient had stopped drinking at the time of presentation, and had quit smoking 2 years earlier.) We instructed him to gargle with warm salt water at home and return in 2 weeks. At follow-up, the lesion was unresolved, so a biopsy was performed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the case history of a 56-year-old man with asymptomatic red lesion with white vesicle-like areas on the right side of the soft palate, who was diagnosed with erythroplakia. He had a 30-year history of alcohol misuse and smokong and had liver cirrhosis and pancreatitis. A diagnosis of squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) in situ was confirmed in pathological investigation.