Prosthetic rehabilitation of palatal perforation in a patient with 'syphilis: the great imitator'.

Syphilis is a sexually transmissible disease caused by treponema palladium, a microaerophilic spirochete. Syphilis may progress from primary to tertiary stage if left unnoticed and untreated. Dentists should be vigilant and suspect sexually transmitted infections such as syphilis in the differential diagnosis of oral inflammatory or ulcerative lesions with palatal perforation. Moreover, it is imperative that dentists should have knowledge about its stages, characteristic features, oral presentation and prosthetic rehabilitation. This case report describes a case of tertiary syphilis with palatal perforation and the prosthetic rehabilitation of the defect with a prosthetic obturator. 2014 BMJ Publishing Group Ltd.