Tissue processing of oral biopsy specimens: An adjunct to diagnosis

Conventional tissue processing dates back to 100 years and still remain the gold standard against which all new technologies and methods are assessed. A laborious and tedious manual sequence, tissue processing is of paramount importance for having good thin sections without artefacts. Tissues and cells examined outside the body with an imaging system are an artefact of the original. The structure of a tissue is determined by the shape and size of macromolecules in and around the cells. Histopathology is a comparative science where like is compared with like and like with unlike. Various techniques have been developed to prepare tissues for study so that they closely resemble their natural, living state. Biopsied tissue has to be stained for microscopical examination. The tissues have to be enabled for sectioning, and the series through which it is prepared is called tissue processing. This review article highlights the three methods of tissue processing and their benefits. The review was selected by typing tissue processing in the Google search engine, Pubmed, and Pubmed Central. Literature review of articles reflecting different methods, variation from the conventional tissue processing method, and latest technique to enhance the quality of the tissue to be processed was performed.