Prevalence of Clinical Oral Soft Tissue Lesions in Children Attending to the Community Dentistry Center

Dear Editor

Major improvements in oral health have occurred in many developed countries over the last 30 years. However, oral diseases are still prevalent and their impact on both society and the individual are significant. The intraoral examination begins with an excursion around the oral cavity, noting its general architecture and function. It is important to monitor and maintain the overall health. The clinical examination, whether the first or regular recall examination, should be all inclusive [1]. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of oral soft tissue lesions in children from 7 to 13 years old attending to the Community Dentistry Center of Zahedan Dental School. In this descriptive cross-sectional study, 243 children (132 males and 111 females), age ranging 7 to 13 years attending to Community Dentistry Center of Zahedan Dental School, were orally examined by an oral medicine specialist. Diagnostic criteria in oral mucosa are based on taking history and clinical features and the most probable clinical diagnosis was recorded on a form. Because of the infrequency of irreversible attachment loss in the primary dentition [2], periodontal probing was not performed. In this study, normal variations such as Fordyce grannula, leukoedema were not considered the data were descriptively assessed through SPSS statistical software.

Among the 243 subjects, (132 males and 111 females) age ranging 7 to 13 years 18 children (7.4%) had oral lesions and 225 children (92.5%) had intact oral soft tissue. Fourteen man (12.1%) and 4 women (3.3%) had oral soft tissue lesions. The most common findings were ankiloglosia (3.6%), geographic tongue (1.2%), herpes labialis (1.2%), ulcer (1.2%) fissured tongue (0.8%) and pigmentation (0.4%) respectively. The most common sites affected were tongue (5.7%) and lip (1.2%). In this study, oral soft tissue lesions were found in 7.4% of the study subjects. In Bessa et al. study, the frequency of children presenting alterations was 27.0% and it was higher in older children [1]. In the study of Parlak two hundred sixty adolescents (26.2%) were diagnosed with at least one oral mucosal lesion at the time of the examination [3]. Regular dental attendance is considered an essential requirement to secure good oral health. Considering early diagnosis of oral lesions in children periodical oral examination on oral mucosa by oral medicine specialists are necessitated. This study has been supported in part by a grant from the vice chancellor for research of Zahedan University of Medical Sciences.