The morbidity of oral mucosal lesions in an adult Swedish population

Abstract

Objectives: To study the severity of symptoms and estimate the prevalence of oral mucosal lesions in a non-referral adult Swedish population, as registered by general dental practitioners. This study also aims to evaluate the possibi-lity of dental practitioners collecting large quantities of reliable and accurate clinical data on oral mucosal lesions. Study Design: Data from 6,448 adult Swedish patients were collected by general dental practitioners using a standardized registration method. A correlation analysis between a group with oral mucosal lesions and a control group, with no oral mucosal lesions, was performed for various parameters such as symptoms from the oral mucosa, systemic diseases, medication, allergy history, tobacco habits and the patient’s own assessment of their general health. In addition, clinical photos were taken of all oral mucosal lesions in order to determine the degree of agreement between the diagnoses made by general dental practitioners and those made by oral medicine specialists. Results: A total of 950 patients (14.7%) presented with some type of oral mucosal lesion and of these, 141 patients (14.8%) reported subjective symptoms. On a visual analogue scale, 43 patients (4.5%) scored their symptoms <30, 65 patients (6.8%) scored their symptoms ?30, and 28 patients (2.6%) scored their symptoms ?60. The most debilitating condition was aphthous stomatitis and the most common oral mucosal lesion was snuff dipper’s lesion (4.8%), followed by lichenoid lesions (2.4%) and geographic tongue (2.2%). There was agreement between the oral medicine specialists and the general practitioners over the diagnosis of oral mucosal lesions on the basis of a clinical photograph in 85% of the cases (n=803). Conclusions: Nearly 15% of the patients with oral mucosal lesions reported symptoms. General practitioners could contribute significantly to the collection of large quantities of reliable and accurate clinical data, although there is a risk that the prevalence of oral mucosal lesions may be underestimated. Key words:Epidemiology, oral mucosal lesions, oral medicine, examiner reliability.

Oral Mucosal Disorders in Pregnant versus Non-Pregnant Women

“…In this study, oral lesions prevalence and age have a meaningful correlation in pregnant women (p = 0.038)-accordingly the incidence of such changes increase with the age of the subjects. This finding is also similar to OMD prevalence of the reported epidemiologic studies [7,22,23].…”

“…However, most epidemiological studies have this limitation due to the high sample volume. Only in some studies was a biopsy done to rule out the malignant lesions [7]. The latter cases were referred to biopsy tests.…”

“…The later were trained prior to conducting the study [7]. For oral diseases diagnosis, a trained GP has the ability to gather and provide appropriate data and information [7].…”

“…Given that most Oral Mucosal Disorders (OMD) are chronic, they can affect the quality of life of those who suffer from them [7]. Some are debilitating for the patient and some may lead to serious disorders [4].…”

Investigation of Oral Mucosal Lesions in Patients Attending Dermatology Outpatient Clinic: A Study of 1670 Cases

“…6 Literatürde ilginç olarak OML hakkın-daki çalışmaların önemli bir kısmının diş hekimliği bölümlerine başvuran hastalar arasında yürütül-düğü fark edilmektedir. 1,5,[7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] Ayrıca Türk toplumunda OML üzerine yapılmış epidemiyolojik çalışma sayısının da oldukça yetersiz olduğu gö-rülmektedir. [19][20][21][22][23][24] Bu çalışmada herhangi bir deri hastalığı şikayeti nedeniyle dermatoloji polikliniğine başvuran hastalarda OML varlığı değerlendi-rilerek OML tipi, nedeni, sıklık ve dağılım özellikleri araştırılmıştır.…”