Oral and Maxillofacial Pathologies — An Institutional Study

Abstract

Oral and maxillofacial pathology infers all the diseases of the mouth and structures related to the mouth inclusive of salivary glands, temporomandibular joints (TMJ), facial muscles and perioral skin. Management of oral and maxillofacial pathology remains one of the most universally performed procedures by oral and maxillofacial surgeons. Lesions of the oral and maxillofacial region are a group of heterogeneous diseases with a wide spectrum of clinicopathologic characteristics. Predictability of lesions helps in rightly predicting, diagnosing, treating and eliminating pathologies that arise in the oral cavity. The aim of this study is to determine the frequency of oral and maxillofacial pathologies encountered in a single centre institution. This is a single centre retrospective study done from June 2019 – March 2020. Sixty-five patients who were diagnosed with a pathology pertaining to the oral and maxillofacial region were considered. Lesions were grouped as a cyst, tumors, infections, salivary gland pathologies and others for better understanding and interpretation. Out of a total of 65 patients considered with oral and maxillofacial pathological lesion requiring surgical management, the most common type of pathology was a cyst (40.0%) followed by tumors (21.5%). Gender predilection for oral and maxillofacial pathology was evident with greater incidence among males (63.1%) with p value = 0.049 < 0.05, by chi square test and in an age group of 21-30 years (30.8%) with p value = 0.044 < 0.05 by chi square test. This study concludes to establish the predominance of oral and maxillofacial pathologies that arise in the age group of 21-30 years with a gender preference to males over females. The most common pathology was cysts, followed by tumors with radicular cyst (53.8%) and ameloblastoma (35.7%) being most common in their respective pathological genre.