Clinical Characteristics of Oral Lichen Planus in Patients Visiting A Private Dental Institution - A Retrospective Study.

Introduction: Oral lichen planus (OLP), the mucosal counterpart of cutaneous lichen planus, present frequently in the fourth decade of life. It clinically presents itself as painless keratotic plaque erosions or ulceration. An important complication of lichen planus is oral squamous cell carcinoma which made it to be considered as a potentially malignant disorder. Hence we conducted the present study to assess the prevalence of oral lichen planus in patients visiting dental hospital. The aim of the study is to evaluate the clinical characteristics of lichen planus. Materials and Method: This study is a retrospective cross sectional study conducted over a 1 year period from June 2019-March 2020 in a private dental institution, Chennai, with a total of 63 patients. Demographic details like age, gender, clinical details of all patients were retrieved from patients records and analysed the data of 86,000 patients. All the data were transferred to the excel sheet. Data was analysed by SPSS software. Results: Out of 63 patients, 24 were males and 39 were females. Increased prevalence of oral lichen planus was among 51-60 years of age with female predominance. Bilateral buccal mucosa is the commonest site involved in OLP. Erosive type is the most prevalent type of oral lichen planus. Conclusion: Oral lichen planus is more common among 51 to 60 years of age and females were more commonly affected. Bilateral buccal mucosa is the commonest site involved in lichen planus and Erosive type is the most prevalent type of Oral lichen planus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]