The role of dental disease in fever of unknown origin

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Fever of unknown origin is an especially difficult clinical problem because of the many, and sometimes elusive, possible causes. On occasion, dental disease is the cause. Oral symptoms usually are not present, thus allowing the oral cavity to be overlooked during physical examination. The authors describe a particularly long and expensive case of fever, which had occurred intermittently for four months before the cause was discovered, to illustrate the pitfalls that can be encountered in diagnosing this problem.