Abstract

SEOANE, Juan et al. Oral lichen planus: a clinical and morphometric study of oral lesions in relation to clinical presentation. Braz. Dent. J. [online]. 2004, vol.15, n.1, pp. 9-12. ISSN 0103-6440.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0103-64402004000100002.

Oral lichen planus (OLP) is a chronic inflammatory disease with different clinical presentations that can be classified as reticular or atrophic-erosive. Sixty-two OLP patients were studied to evaluate the clinical-pathologic characteristics of their OLP lesions and to investigate possible differences in their biological behavior. The most common clinical presentation was the reticular type (62.9% vs 37.1%). Atrophic-erosive presentations showed significantly longer evolution (chi square=4.454; p=0.049), more extensive lesions (chi square=16.211; p=0.000) and more sites affected than reticular ones (chi square=10.048; p=0.002). Atrophic-erosive OLP was more frequently found on the tongue, gingiva and floor of the mouth. No statistically significant differences could be identified between reticular and atrophic-erosive clinical presentations in terms of age, sex, tobacco habit, plasma cortisol level and depth of inflammatory infiltrate. We concluded that the classification of OLP lesions as reticular vs atrophic-erosive is a simple, easy to use classification that can identify clinical presentations with different biological behavior.

Keywords : oral lichen planus; clinical classification; morphometry.