Frequency of Different Oral Mucosal Lesions in Geriatric Patients Attending the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Medicine of Tabriz Faculty of Dentistry

Background: Geriatric population has higher risk for developing oral mucosal lesions, which can affect the their quality of life negatively by disturbing mastication, swallowing, and speech and the common symptoms are burning, irritation, and pain. The Aims of this study was to determine the frequency of each oral lesions in the geriatric population attending the department of oral and maxillofacial medicine of Tabriz faculty of dentistry.Materials and methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted using the medical records of the patients aged over ۶۵ years old who attended the department of oral and maxillofacial medicine from ۲۰۱۹- ۲۰۲۱. Dental and oral clinical examinations along with demographic information were recorded. The identified oral lesions were classified as potentially malignant disorders, malignancies, reactive lesions, denture related lesions, immune mediated lesions, pigmented lesions and lesions related to tongue. Descriptive statistics and Kruskal-wallis test were performed (P<۰.۰۵). It should be mentioned that this is not a prevalence study because only the medical records of patients who have oral lesions are kept in this department.Results: A total of ۲۳۷ geriatric patients were identified. ۱۵۱ (۶۳.۷%) were female and ۸۶ (۳۶.۳%) were male. Mean age of patients was ۷۱±۴.۷. Totally ۱۶۹ patient (۷۱.۳%) were edentulous. Overall, coated tongue (۵۱.۲۶%) was the most frequently detected lesion, followed by denture stomatitis (۳۸.۸۴%), sublingual varicosities (۲۲.۶۷%) and, lichen planus (۱۹.۶۸%). There wasn’t any significant relationship between the type of the oral lesion and gender (P=۰.۰۹).Conclusion: As it can be seen edentulousness and complications related to it such as denture stomatitis is very common in this population. This shows the need for educating the adult population about the importance of oral health and retaining their natural teeth. Designing of a suitable, accessible, and affordable health outreach programes are very important

Keywords:

Oral mucosal lesions , Geriatric population , Dentistry.