Historically, disorders of salivary glands tend to be 'underdiagnosed and overtreated'. In the vast body of literature on this subject, emphasis has usually been put on therapeutic modalities of various diseases of the salivary glands. Whereas therapy and pathology have been treated in numerous thorough studies, the (patho )physiology of the salivary glands has remained rather poorly understood. Even less attention has been given to the diagnostic methods. Until a few decades ago, diagnosis consisted mainly of a clinical examin ation which included the patient's history, inspection, and...

Historically, disorders of salivary glands tend to be 'underdiagnosed and overtreated'. In the vast body of literature on this subject, emphasis has usually been put on therapeutic modalities of various diseases of the salivary glands. Whereas therapy and pathology have been treated in numerous thorough studies, the (patho )physiology of the salivary glands has remained rather poorly understood. Even less attention has been given to the diagnostic methods. Until a few decades ago, diagnosis consisted mainly of a clinical examin ation which included the patient's history, inspection, and...