Introduction Oral lesions in patients with HIV are common (30-80%) may indicate impairment in general health and poor prognosis presence suggests low CD4+ count and high viral load often an early marker of infection may be infectious, neoplastic, or traumatic Infections candidiasis "oral thrush" infection from Candida yeast soft white/yellow, curd-like plaques on the oral mucosa can be scraped off leaving a red undersurface prevalence as high as 95% pre-AIDS defining lesion hairy leukoplakia infection of the tongue by EBV asymtomatic, bilateral, vertically corrugated, or hairy white lesions on the lateral border of the tongue herpes simplex virus clusters of painful, small vesicles and ulcers on the palate or gingiva Neoplastic Kaposi's sarcoma caused by HHV-8 infection painless violaceous lesions, most commonly seen on hard palate or anterior gingival mucosa non-Hodgkin's lymphoma rapidly enlarging rubbery mass in the tonsillar fossa, palate, or gingiva Other apthous ulcers "canker sores" unknown origin, but may be viral or stress-induced angular chelitis red, ulcerated, and fissured lesions at the angles of the mouth