Prevalence of common nonmalignant tongue lesions

Abstract

Superficial tongue lesions create a significant ratio of the oral lesions, which afford approximation to oral health and general condition of the patient and may reflect the presence of many systemic diseases of an individual. Oral lesions have long been view as the first signs of many systemic diseases and numerous of oral illness. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of various superficial tongue lesions in Iraqi population. 2500 patients at- tending the Department of Oral Medicine, College of Dentistry, Al-Mustansiriyah University in Baghdad, Iraq were examined for the presence of various tongue lesions during the period from October 2013 to September 2016. The age of the patients ranged from 9-75years with a mean age of 36.51 years. The number of occurrences of tongue lesions was 14.64% and the most common superficial tongue lesion diagnosed was fissured tongue affecting 43.7% of the subjects (160 cases). The geographic tongue was seen in 65 patients (17.7%). The coated tongue was diagnosed in 55 patients (17 %) hairy tongue was seen in 21patients (5.7 %) and ulcerations was seen in 1 patient (0.27%). Ankyloglossia was seen in 46 patients (12.5%) and scalloped tongue was seen in 10 patients (2.7 %). Varicosities were seen in 1 of the patients (0.27 %) and thrush in one patient (0.27 %). The number of occurrences of tongue lesions in the present study was not higher of than previous studies ̦ but the high prevalence of tongue lesions in this study (14.64%) specially fissured tongue (43.7%), geographic tongue (17.7%) and coated tongue (15.02%) indicate further investigations are demanded to indicate if genetic and congenital or environmental factors play a critical role.