BackgroundAmong the diseases of oral mucosa, malignant tumors are the most dangerous, but not the most common lesions that might appear in the oral cavity. Since most of the studies are focused on the detection of cancer in the oral cavity, we were interested in detecting the frequency of benign changes of the oral mucosa in Slovene population. Oral mucosal lesions are important pointer of oral health and quality of life, especially in elderly. The prevalence of oral mucosal lesions, together with information on the risk habits associated with oral health, such as tobacco and alcohol use, can help in planning future oral health studies and screening programs.Patients and methodsSurvey upon oral mucosal lesions was conducted during the national project for oral cancer screening in spring 2017 in the Slovenia in which more than 50% of dentists participated and 2395 patients (904 men and 1491 women) were included.ResultsClinical examination, which was conducted according to the WHO standards revealed that 645 patients (27%) had oral mucosal lesions. The ten most common oral lesions detected were fibroma, gingivitis, Fordyce spots, white coated tongue, cheek biting, linea alba, denture stomatitis, geographic tongue, recurrent aphthous ulcerations and lichen planus.ConclusionsOverall, these epidemiological data suggest need for specific health policies for prevention, diagnosis and treatment of oral mucosal lesions.

Oral lichen planus (OLP) and oral lichenoid lesions (OLL) are clinically and histologically similar lesions but their treatment planning and prognosis are different. The review of the literature indicates numerous criteria to distinguish these two lesions; however there is a lot of inconsistency. Thus, the aim of this study was to determine the correlation of histopathology and clinical OLP and OLL diagnosis and to clarify which histopathologic criteria could best distinguish these two diagnoses. A retrospective study showed that clinically diagnosed 92 OLPs and 14 OLLs have been confirmed histopathologically in 52.2% and 42.9% of cases, respectively. In addition, histopathology showed statistically significant more eosinophils (P < 0.0005), plasma cells (P < 0.0005), and granulocytes (P < 0.05) in OLL than OLP. To establish histopathological diagnosis of OLP and OLL it should be mandatory to define the type of cells in mononuclear infiltrate, which can be associated more accurately with clinical feature and patient history. Therefore, currently accepted diagnostic criteria for OLP and OLL should be modified and validated on a larger number of patients taking into account particular distinguishing histopathological features.

Razina kortizola i simptomi žarenja kod bolesnika sa sindromom pekućih usta prije i nakon liječenja niskoenergijskim laserom: dvostruko slijepa, kontrolirana i randomizirana klinička studija Uvod Sindrom pekućih usta (SPU) poremećaj je obilježen simptomima žarenja sluznice usta, bez vidljivih patoloških promjena (1). Etiologija mu je nejasna, iako se kao mogući uzroci spominju poremećaji središnjeg (2) ili perifernog živčanog sustava. Najčešće zahvaćena mjesta su prednje dvije trećine jezika, iako se može pojaviti na bio kojem intraoralnom mjestu (3). Najčešće obolijevaju žene u peri i postme-ACTA STOMATOLOGICA CROATICA www.ascro.hr

The objective of our study was to investigate salivary levels of estradiol, progesterone and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), and quality of life, in female postmenopausal women with burning mouth syndrome. The study included new patients diagnosed with burning mouth syndrome and excluded local and systemic causes. Unstimulated saliva samples were taken in the morning from 9 AM and 11 AM and immediately frozen for hormone analysis. The patients filled out a self-perceived quality of life questionnaire Oral Health Impact Profile-14 and determined the intensity of mucosal symptoms according to the visual-analog scale grading 0 to 10. A total of 40 patients were included. The study group had significantly lower levels of salivary estradiol. No difference was observed in levels of progesterone and DHEA between the groups. The levels of salivary hormones did not exhibit a significant correlation according to the Spearman correlation test with a self-perceived quality of life questionnaire (OHIP-14) in the study group or in the control group. Further research on a larger number of patients is needed to verify these results. This information might help to enable more precise and efficient treatment.

Our results have shown that both laser wavelengths were effective in increasing salivary flow rate, and the improvement in salivation was statistically significant. The effect of treatment could be observed 10 days after the completion of treatment, thus providing evidence not only of stimulative effect but also indicating regenerative potential of PBM therapy.

Head and neck irradiation is the standard treatment of advanced oral/oropharyngeal cancer. The treatment has severe side effects such as mucositis, xerostomia, irradiation caries, trismus, and osteoradionecrosis. Side effects can lead to treatment discontinuation, infection, increased drug consumption, and increased duration of hospital admission and can have negative impact on the quality of life and overall survival. Furthermore, some of them (mucositis and xerostomia) affect almost every (>90%) patient. Since nearly two-thirds of oral/oropharyngeal cancers are diagnosed in advanced stage, one might conclude that the great majority of patients will be affected. However, these side effects can be prevented or at least reduced by proper oral/dental care. Therefore, every patient planned for head and neck irradiation should undergo dental evaluation before beginning of the treatment.

Biglycan and lumican were identified as important pathogenesis biomarkers of OLP that point to its malignant potential.

It is known that cortisol level increases in stress situations. The aim of the study was to measure the levels of salivary cortisol in patients with oral lichen planus (OLP) and healthy controls. This was a case-control pilot study which included seven patients with reticular (non-symptomatic) OLP, eight patients with atrophic/erosive (symptomatic) OLP, and nine healthy controls. We hypothesized that patients with an atrophic/erosive type of OLP have higher levels of cortisol compared to patients with the reticular type of OLP and healthy controls. In each participant, unstimulated saliva was collected in order to determine cortisol levels by using commercially available ELISA kit. Our results have shown no differences between levels of salivary cortisol in OLP patients and healthy controls. We can conclude that further research with a larger number of OLP patients is needed to determine the correlation between OLP and stress.