Eric Carlson is Chairman of the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and Director of the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Residency Program at the University of Tennessee Graduate School of Medicine and also Director of the Head and Neck Service at the University of Tennessee Cancer Institute. Robert Ord is Chairman of the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University of Maryland Medical System and Head of the Oncology Section of the Department of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery.

The authors are well-established clinicians, educators, and researchers in oral and maxillofacial surgery. They have devoted their careers to the practice of oral and head and neck surgery and serve to educate their national and international audiences on the diagnosis and management of pathologic entities of these areas. Their literature in the areas of the diagnosis and management of salivary gland pathology has been widely quoted in the scientific literature.