Oral manifestations of HIV infection: a Panamerican perspective

Abstract

This paper presents a preliminary approach to the study of the oral manifestations of HIV infections in the region of the Americans. A general description of the lesions encountered is provided together with a review of the prevalence of the different manifestations in some countries of the Americas. Oral candidiasis was the most common oral lesion identified. Among oral candidiasis lesions differences were noted in relation to the frequency of the clinical forms seen. Hairy leukoplakia was the second most frequent lesion in almost all studies, with the exception the Peruvian study, where the most prevalent oral condition was xerostomia. The numbers of cases of HIV-gingivitis and HIV-periodontitis found in the countries of the Americas were lower than the cases in USA. Other oral manifestations of HIV infections seen were: Kaposi's sarcoma, oral erythema, labial herpetic infection. It is concluded that still more studies are needed, oral health professionals need additional training in the detection and treatment of lesions, and information needs to be systematized and standardized such that it is possible to make accurate comparisons among regions and countries. Recommendations are included to improve this situation.

Oropharyngeal candidiasis and Candida colonization in HIV positive patients in northern India

“…In our study, acute pseudomembranous candidiasis (exudative) was the most common form of OPC (Table 1), while angular chelitis may be part of vitamin deficiency superimposed with Candida infection seen in 9.5% of the patients. These results are in concordance with those result of several other studies [16,20]. C. albicans was also the predominant species isolated from the oral cavities of the patients in the control group.…”

“…In HIV-positive patients with OPC, C. albicans is the most frequently identified species; however, nonalbicans Candida has also been reported recently [20,21]. C. albicans was the most frequent species isolated from colonized and infected HIV-positive subjects (90.5%) in our study (Table 1).…”

Oral Health Status and Oromucosal Lesions in Patients Living with HIV/AIDS in India: A Comparative Study

“…Candidiasis was the most common condition observed in HIV patients. Similar findings were reported by Gillespie and Marino (1993) and [8] Patton et al (2002) [9]. They also found candidiasis as the most common oral lesion affecting HIV people.…”

Oral Health-Related Quality of Life Among People Living with HIV/AIDS

“…Prevalence of the lesion, however, ranged considerably from as low as 5% found in two separate studies in Minnesota (Little et al, 1994;Melnick et al, 1991) to as high as 94% among those with AIDSdefining illnesses in Zaire (Tukutuku et al, 1990). This review paper by Patton et al (2002), which was the outcome of an International Workshop that addressed the prevalence and classification of HIV/AIDS associated oral lesions, identified hairy leukoplakia as the second most reported oral lesion with prevalence that ranged from 2% in Nairobi, Kenya (Wanzala et al, 1989) to 43% in Mexico (Gillespie & Mariño, 1993). This wide-ranged prevalence was due to variations in the populations studied, including differences in the prevalence of AIDS diagnoses, CD4+ count, or diagnostic techniques used.…”

“…According to the review by Patton et al (2002), Kaposi's sarcoma was reported to be present in 12% of 83 heterosexual AIDS patients in Kinshasa, Zaire (Tukutuku et al, 1990), while higher frequency of 38% was found among 84 AIDS patients in the United States (Roberts et al, 1988). HIV-related periodontal lesions, namely linear gingival erythema, necrotizing ulcerative gingivitis and necrotizing ulcerative periodontitis were found in up to 22% of patients in New York (Lamster et al, 1994), 24% in Argentina (Gillespie & Mariño, 1993), and 23% in India (Anil & Challacombe, 1997), respectively. Of these periodontal lesions, necrotizing ulcerative periodontitis is the most severe form.…”