Prevalence of oral mucosal lesions and variations in Indian public school children

ABSTRACT

Aim: To study the nature and distribution of oral mucosal lesions and variations in children.Methods: This investigation was a cross-sectional study. All the study subjects were taken fromgovernment primary school. Children were in the age group of 4-14years. The children whowere attending the Department of Pediatric Dentistry for dental check up were examined. Results:A total of 1,003 children were included in the present study,. The mucosal lesions were observedin 643 (64.11%) children, developmental variations of mucosa were evident in 220 (21.93%)children and normal mucosal variations were present in 391 (38.98%) children. The mostcommonly observed mucosal lesions were gingivitis, gingival abscess and traumatic ulcers. Themost frequent developmental mucosal variations were ankyloglossia and high frenal attachment.Normal mucosal variations noted were linea alba buccalis and fordyce’s spots. Distribution ofmucosal lesions/variations were same among both the gender except fordyce’s spots (p=0.018).Parotid papillae and pigmented spots had positive relation with age. Conclusions: Mucosallesions/variations were present in more than half of the children in this study. Only few oralmucosal lesions had gender differences and vary with age.