Prevalence of oral potentially malignant disorders among adult population: A retrospective study

Abstract

Oral potentially malignant disorders refer to both the precancerous lesions and precancerous conditions of the oral cavity. They possess the risk of cancer development in the oral cavity. Precancerous lesions and conditions are associated with various causative factors such as smoking, smokeless forms of tobacco etc. Early detection of oral, potentially malignant disorders can reduce the risk of development into oral cancer. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to find out the prevalence of oral, potentially malignant disorders among the adult population. The records were obtained through DIAS. This study included histopathological proven oral, potentially malignant disorder. The age, gender, smoking habits, systemic diseases, clinical sites of  the oral potentially malignant disorders were noted.  The mean age group  of the patients who were involved in this study was 44.37.  The prevalence  of oral, potentially malignant disorders was higher in males [66.7%] compared to females [33.3%]. When assessed for the habits associated with the patients having oral potentially malignant disorders, the smokeless tobacco forms were higher in prevalence [31.1%]. 51.1% of the patients were found to be without any habits. The most common site involved was buccal mucosa [88.9%]. The systemic diseases were absent in most of the patients [82.2%]. The highest prevalence of oral potentially malignant disorder was found to be as Lichen planus of 33.3%. Within the limits of this study, the most common oral potentially malignant disorders were found to be Lichen planus according to this population studied. However, previous studies report that the prevalence of oral potentially malignant disorders differs among different populations.