SJLD Oct 21, 2011:

http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/decubitus ul...
ulcer, decubitus
n 1. a bedsore.
2. older term for a traumatic ulcer of the oral mucosa. More commonly called
traumatic ulcer.

Sarah Gregg (asker) Oct 21, 2011:

Thanks to you all for the precious help. On the basis of your suggestions, I've been googling and I've come up with this: http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/traumatic ul... plus other references which seem to suggest it is a synonym for traumatic ulcer or pressure ulcer.

Mailand Oct 21, 2011:

Thank you Nadia! Now Sarah still has to check if it´s exactly the same in usage in English ... :-)

Nadia Gazzola Oct 21, 2011:

From: http://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/decubito/

2. D. o piaga da d., particolare lesione di tipo necrotico, talvolta anche flogistico e cancrenoso, che si produce a carico della cute distrofica in corrispondenza dei punti di maggiore contatto con il letto, specialmente dove affiora lo scheletro (sacro, calcagno, ginocchia). Per estens. si parla di decubito anche quando un processo analogo avviene in una sede diversa da quella cutanea (per es., *lesioni delle gengive per protesi dentarie difettose*).

Mailand Oct 21, 2011:

Why does it sound silly? I am neither a native speaker nor a specialist in the field, but I just wonder: why does it sound silly? "Decubito" develops through pressure on the human tissue by the body´s own weight (usually on a bed), when the pressure comes from a prothesis on the tissue (mucosa, in this case), it´s fundamentally the same thing, isn´t it??

Sarah Gregg (asker) Oct 21, 2011:

Yes, I had followed the same reasoning, coming to the same conclusion. Does seem very strange!

SJLD Oct 21, 2011:

What springs to mind is "pressure ulcer", which is another name for a "decubitus ulcer". However it sounds very silly to use the term "decubiti" for the mouth.