Prevalence and distribution of oral lesions: a cross-sectional study in Turkey

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prevalence and distribution of oral lesions (OLs) in Turkish population. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, 765 residents (F/M: 375/390) were selected by the cluster sampling method and examined according to WHO criteria. RESULTS: Excessive melanin pigmentation (6.9%) was the most common lesion in the study population. The tongue lesions observed in this study were as follows: fissured tongue (5.2%), varices (4.1%), hairy tongue (3.8%), geographic tongue (1.0%), atrophic tongue papillae (0.7%) and ankyloglossia (0.3%). The denture-related lesions were denture stomatitis (4.3%), suction irritation (0.8%), denture hyperplasia and torus palatinus as bony lesion (0.5%) and traumatic ulcers (0.3%). In regression analysis, being 65 years old and over was found as a statistically significant risk factor for the occurrence of pigmentation, fissured tongue, varices, hairy tongue, denture stomatitis and petechiae (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Pigmentation, fissured tongue and denture stomatitis were observed to be the most common lesions in Turkish population. Elderly population was a significant risk factor for occurrence of some OLs.