Presentation of recurrent aphthous ulcer among patients in a tertiary hospital

Abstract

Background: Oral ulceration is a common complaint of patients attending out-patient departments worldwide. Recurrent aphthous ulcers ranks as the highest and most common oral ulceration affecting as many as 25% of the world’s population.   Objectives: To determine the prevalence of recurrent aphthous ulcer, and the gender and age distribution of the various subtypes of recurrent aphthous ulcer among patients utilizing dental services in University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH). Methodology: A retrospective cross sectional study was carried out in Oral Medicine Clinic, UBTH. Data of patients with recurrent aphthous ulcers were collected and analyzed with IBM SPSS version 21.0 software. The association between age and gender distribution amongst patients was analyzed using chi squared test. The level of significance was set at P < 0.05. Results: The prevalence of recurrent aphthous ulcer in the study was found to be 7.2% with 54.5% of cases seen in male patients and 45.5% in female. Most of the patients (n=9, 41.0%) were within the 21-30 years age group. Eleven (50.0%) cases of recurrent aphthous ulcer were found to be of the minor subtype with more female preponderance (27.4%), while 8(36.4%) had the hepertiform subtype with equal gender distribution, and the least (13.6%) was the major subtype found only in male patients. Conclusion: The study revealed an overall prevalence of 7.2% of recurrent aphthous ulcers with higher occurrence among males. Most of the patients were in the third decade of life. The most common subtype of recurrent aphthous ulcer was the minor type.