title: Prevalence and distribution of oral lesions: a cross-sectional study in Turkey.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prevalence and distribution of oral lesions (OLs) in Turkish population.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this cross-sectional study, 765 residents (F/M: 375/390) were selected by the cluster sampling method and examined according to WHO criteria.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Excessive melanin pigmentation (6.9%) was the most common lesion in the study population. The tongue lesions observed in this study were as follows: fissured tongue (5.2%), varices (4.1%), hairy tongue (3.8%), geographic tongue (1.0%), atrophic tongue papillae (0.7%) and ankyloglossia (0.3%). The denture-related lesions were denture stomatitis (4.3%), suction irritation (0.8%), denture hyperplasia and torus palatinus as bony lesion (0.5%) and traumatic ulcers (0.3%). In regression analysis, being 65 years old and over was found as a statistically significant risk factor for the occurrence of pigmentation, fissured tongue, varices, hairy tongue, denture stomatitis and petechiae (P < 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Pigmentation, fissured tongue and denture stomatitis were observed to be the most common lesions in Turkish population. Elderly population was a significant risk factor for occurrence of some OLs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Basic Health Science, Faculty of Health Education, University of Marmara, Istanbul, Turkey. gmumcu@yahoo.com
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Mumcu
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Cimilli
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sur
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Hayran
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Atalay
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008548:Melanosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009059:Mouth Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D009061:Mouth Mucosa / Q000473:pathology; D015995:Prevalence; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012307:Risk Factors; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013282:Stomatitis, Denture / Q000453:epidemiology; D014063:Tongue, Fissured / Q000453:epidemiology; D014421:Turkey / Q000453:epidemiology; D014505:Urban Population