Prevalence and Site distribution of Oral Mucosal Lesions in patients attending outpatient clinics of Oxford dental college, Bangalore

Abstract

Background and aims: The oral mucosa performs essential protective functions that significantly affect the general health of the patient. Besides dental caries and periodontal diseases, oral mucosal lesions are another significant problem of public health importance. This study aims to establish the prevalence and site distribution of oral mucosal lesions in patients attending out patient clinics of Oxford Dental College, Bangalore. Methods: The prevalence of oral mucosal lesions was determined by the clinical examination in a sample of 512 patients. Patients lesser than 10 years to greater than 60 years were included in the study. A single examiner previously trained in the diagnosis of oral conditions made all examinations. World health organization's Guide to Epidemiology and Diagnosis of Oral Mucosal Diseases was used as the diagnostic criteria. The Statistical software namely SPSS 11.0 and Systat 8.0 were used for the analysis of the data. Odds ratio (OR) has been used to find the strength of relationship between prevalence of lesions with the study parameters. Results: The overall prevalence of oral mucosal lesions reported was 11.33%. Tobacco related lesions composed 35(60%) and denture related lesions composed 16(27%) of all lesions. Conclusion: This study establishes the prevalence of Oral Mucosal Lesions (OML's) in patients attending out patient clinics of Oxford Dental College and demonstrates that smoking and increasing age is associated with greater odds of OML's.