Prevalence of Oral Mucosal Lesions Among the Patients Visiting a Dental Hospital: A cross-sectional study

Objective: To determine the prevalence of oral mucosal lesions among the patients visiting a dental hospital. Design of the Study: It was a cross-sectional study. Study Settings: This study was carried out at Outpatient Department of Dentistry Combined Military Hospital, Lahore from November 2020 to April 2021. Material and Methods: Clinically all the patients were examined then questioned if there are any habits such as (pan, chewing, alcohol intake and smoking) and questions were also asked about frequency and the period of their habit and time of systemic disease. The screening of the disease was made by taking history and observing the clinical features as per guidelines of WHO. Results of the Study: Total 178 patients were included in this study out of total sample 76 (42.69%) were male and 57.30% females. Out of 178 patients 91(51.12%) had oral mucosal lesions. Out of 91 patients 48 had females with oral lesion with percentage 26.96 of all the screened patients, while 43 male patients had OMLs making 24.15%. Conclusion: The prevalence of oral mucosal lesions was significantly affected by socio-demographic characteristics like sage, gender, occupation, cigarette use, alcohol use and tobacco chewing. Our study has highlighted facts and figures about epidemiology of the oral mucosal lesions that provide help in organizing the future studies about oral health. Keywords: oral mucosal lesions, chewing, alcohol, who, prevalence, smoking, cigarette