title: Efficacy of lycopene in the management of oral submucous fibrosis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the efficacy of oral lycopene therapy in patients with oral submucous fibrosis and to compare these effects with a placebo.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fifty-eight patients with oral submucous fibrosis formed the population for the study and were randomly divided into 3 groups, evaluated weekly over a 2-month period. Patients of group A (n = 21) received 16 mg of lycopene, those of group B (n = 19) received 16 mg of lycopene along with biweekly intralesional steroid injections, and those of group C (n = 18) were given a placebo. Paired and unpaired t tests were used for statistical evaluation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mouth-opening values for the patients showed an average increase of 3.4 mm, 4.6 mm, and 0.0 mm for patients in groups A, B, and C, respectively. These values were statistically found to be highly significant.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The observed effects suggest that lycopene can and should be used as a first line of therapy in the initial management of oral submucous fibrosis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral Medicine and Radiodiagnosis, Karnataka, India. abhinavmathur@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Abhinav
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: Anjana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bagewadi
authors.forename: Vaishali
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Keluskar
authors.forename: Mohitpal
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Singh
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000893:Anti-Inflammatory Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D000975:Antioxidants / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001114:Areca / Q000009:adverse effects; D001623:Betamethasone / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002338:Carotenoids / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D000077276:Lycopene; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009914:Oral Submucous Fibrosis / Q000188:drug therapy*; D016059:Range of Motion, Articular
chemical_list: D000893:Anti-Inflammatory Agents; D000975:Antioxidants; D002338:Carotenoids; D001623:Betamethasone; D000077276:Lycopene