Assessment of Oral Mucosal Lesions Among Tobacco Users – A Cross-Sectional Survey

Introduction: Increased consumption of tobacco can lead to various oral mucosal lesions. The study was done to assess the oral mucosal lesions among tobacco users. Materials & Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 5240 subjects who found to have a history of tobacco usage. Subjects with presence of oral mucosal lesions were subjected to vital tissue staining with toluidine blue dye (TB). Factors such as socio-economic status, occupation, type of tobacco usage, education status and type of lesions were recorded. Results: Hyperkeratosis was seen in 562 patients followed by smoker’s melanosis in 360, leukoplakia in 252 patients, squamous cell carcinoma in 190 patients, smoker’s palate in 130 patients, erythroplakia in 96, lichen planus in 80 and OSMF in 70 patients. Cases were due to Cigarette/bidi, were due to gutkha usage, 252 (14.4%) due to hookah, hukli and 214 (12.2%) due to zarda/pan masala. Oral mucosal lesions were significantly higher in patients with the habit of smoking cigarette/beedi 974 (55.9%) compared to those patients that were chewing gutkha 300(17.2%) or panmasala 214 (12.2%) (P < 0.05). There was significantly maximum lesions seen in buccal mucosa (812) followed by the retromolar pad area in 302, floor of mouth in 199, palate in 176, gingiva in 128, tongue in 90 and lip in 33 cases (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Authors found that most common oral mucosal lesion was hyperkeratosis followed by leukoplakia and smokers melanosis. Most common type of tobacco use was cigarette/bidi and gutkha.