Over a period of 10 months, 1013 consecutive dental outpatients attending the Screening Clinic in Faculty of Dentistry, Jordan University of Science and Technology, in the city of Irbid were investigated for the presence of tongue lesions. All subjects were seeking treatment for caries and periodontal diseases and none was complaining of oral mucosal disorder. The results showed that 240 subjects (23.7%) had one or more tongue lesions. Geographic tongue and fissured tongue were detected in 6.8% and 11.4% of the examined population respectively, and an association of the two conditions was observed in 2.9% of the subjects. Hairy tongue was diagnosed in 3.4% of the subjects with significantly higher prevalence in males (P < 0.0005). A strong correlation was found between hairy tongue and smoking.
Since there is little information available on the prevalence of oral lesions in the Middle East population generally, and no data on the Jordanian population, this study was undertaken to correct this deficiency in our knowledge. During this investigation 2175 consecutive asymptomatic dental patients attending the Initial Treatment Unit in the Faculty of Dentistry, Jordan University of Science and Technology were examined for the presence of oral lesions. A total of 30 different oral lesions and conditions were diagnosed. Fordyce's granules and tori were the most common conditions diagnosed in 49 per cent and 15.7 per cent of the subjects respectively. Larger scale studies are required on an unselected group of the Jordanian population to assess the overall significance of the findings.
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