Prevalence of oral mucosal lesions in an adult population from eight communities in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the prevalence of Oral Mucosal Lesions (OMLs) in an adult population from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. 751 subjects from eight communities from Santo Domingo accepted the invitation to participate in an oral screening from October 2016 to January 2017. 248 subjects were evaluated and clinically examined, age range 18-86 years. A validated instrument was designed to record demographic factors, age group, gender, anatomical location, presence or absence of OMLs, risk factors such as tobacco consumption and its frequency, and different forms of tobacco and alcohol use. A systematic oral clinical examination was conducted by a specialist. The presence or absence, and anatomic location of OMLs were recorded. The sample consisted of 44.4% males and 55.6 % females. 228 subjects had 1 or more lesions (91.9%), the median was 3 lesions per patient. In relation to risk factors, tobacco use in general was reported by 26.2 % of the subjects, with cigarette smoking reported by 75.4%, followed by other forms as “hookah” 9.2 %, marihuana 9.2%, cigars (“puros”)4.6% and pipe smoking 1.5%. Among the oral lesions detected by screening, the nonpathological group was prevalent, and included physiologic melanin pigmentation as the most frequent (25.0%) followed by palatal/mandibular tori (20.2%), Fordyce granules (7.9%), and Exostosis (5.6%). Potentially malignant disorders (Oral Leukoplakia, Oral Lichen Planus and Actinic Cheilitis) corresponded to 2.2%, 0.3 %, and 0.3%, respectively. No malignancy was observed clinically. This study contributes to determining the prevalence of OMLs in Dominican Republic and to identifying risk factors. This is the first study reporting the prevalence of oral mucosal lesions among the Dominican adult population. This information is vital for establishing a public health program targeting the high-risk group to improve the oral health status in this population.

Prevalence of Nicotinic Stomatitis in Smokers Attending Oral Diagnosis Department in Khanzad Dental Center and Hawler Medical University –College of Dentistry

“…The prevalent type of smoking practiced by our study participants were cigarette smoking (73.3%) while the water pipe users were less (9.5%) , in accordance with Collin et al, study conducted in eight communities of Dominican Republic [23], while.Bibars et al, and ALSwuailem et al, reported that the prevalent type of smoking was water pipe in their study samples (24,25), this may be due to the rising appeal of water pipe use among young individuals rather than cigarette.…”

Oral and oropharyngeal mucosal lesions: clinical-epidemiological study of patients attended at a reference center for infectious diseases

“…The prevalence of OOPML reported in studies can be influenced by the country or geographic region in which the study is conducted, the socioeconomic level of patients, and the methodologies used, which may explain the large variation observed among publications (4.9%–64.5%). 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 Our study demonstrated that 10.2% of the total number of patients seen at the Otorhinolaryngology Service of INI-FIOCRUZ had OOPML, similar to the prevalence observed in population-based studies. 16 , 18 …”

“…Age group and skin color can vary depending on the study, as some studies on OOPML report a similar distribution, 13 , 16 , 21 , 32 while others report a female majority. 6 , 9 , 14 , 16 , 32 The male predominance in the present study may be related to the higher frequency of GID and Squamous Cell Carcinoma (SCC), diseases which are more common in men; 33 , 34 , 35 in contrast, benign lesions, mainly inflammatory fibrous hyperplasia, occur more frequently in women. 6 , 9 , 13 Most of our patients had low education levels similar to that observed by Souza et al (2017).…”

“…The prevalence of oral lesions is primarily determined through population-based studies, 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 or studies carried out in dental centers 19 , 20 , 21 or from oral pathology laboratories. 22 , 23 , 24 However, as no standardization in OOPML classification exists, with studies classifying OOPML by a lesion group (e.g., non-neoplastic lesions) 19 or by a specific disease (e.g., oral lesions in syphilis), 25 the reported OOPML frequencies are directly influenced.…”

“…Likewise, the OOPML locations in other epidemiological surveys varied according to the diseases observed. 13 , 14 , 20 , 21 , 32 It is worth noting that the anatomical division of the oral cavity/oropharynx between studies is not standardized. 6 , 9 , 13 As an example, the soft palate, considered as an oral cavity subsite by some authors, 6 , 13 , 21 was considered as oropharynx in the present study based on TNM anatomical division criteria.…”