Prevalence of Oral Mucosal Lesions in Patients Attending Oral Diagnosis Clinic at School Of Dentistry, University Of Sulaimani

Objective: To report prevalence of oral mucosal lesions in patients attending oral diagnosis clinic at school of dentistry for seeking dental treatment. Patients and Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out among patients (n=1325) who were visiting the Department of Oral Diagnosis at School of Dentistry, University of Sulaimani; of which; 650 (49.05%) were male and 675 (50.94%) were female aged from 10-79 years with mean age= 44.5±12.64 years, demographic information (age, sex) were obtained as well as clinical examination including features of the lesion, anatomical location, extension were also collected from patients. The lesions that could not be diagnosed by clinical examinations alone were analyzed histopathologically. Chi square test was used to analyze the data. Result: Prevalence of oral lesion was 2.64%. The most common detected oral lesion was recurrent aphthous ulceration (0.75%). Oral mucosal lesions were more prevalent among females (2.81%) than males (2.46%); however it was not statistically significant (P=0.68). The vast majority of oral lesions were seen in age group of 20-39 years (60.52%) where as the most common location for oral lesions were buccal mucosa (25.71%) Conclusion: Routine examinations of oral cavities is important in diagnosing several oral lesions and this will help practitioners to establish early diagnosis and treatment and better prognosis