title: Prevalence of oral mucosal lesions in an adult Iranian population.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Nowadays the importance of oral health to life quality is not obvious to anyone in our world. Oral lesions can interfere with daily social activities in involved patients through impacts on mastication, swallowing and speech and symptoms like xerostomia, halitosis or dysesthesia.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To assess the prevalence and types of oral lesions in a general population in Rasht, Northern Province of Iran.
  
  
  METHODS
  1581 people aged > 30 years old who were inhabitant of Rasht, Iran, enrolled in a cross-sectional study. For each individual a detailed questionnaire based on the world health organization (WHO) guidelines in order to diagnosis of the lesions was filled and it contained all the required data. Participants were divided into two groups with and without oral mucosal lesions and oral mucosal lesions were divided into two groups with and without. Demographic characteristics and clinical information including age, sex, smoking (cigarette and tobacco), opium consumption, medication and oral and dental hygiene were collected and compared between these two groups.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The prevalence of mucosal lesions in our study was 19.4%. Our data demonstrated higher prevalence of oral mucosal lesions in males and young adults (30-40 years). The most common mucosal lesion among our participants was Fissured tongue(4%), followed by Fordyce granules(2.8%), geographic tongue(2.6%) , Pigmentation(2.5%), Candida(1.8%), Smoker Plate(1.6%), lingual Varices(1.5%), Petechiae(1.4%) and lingual labial(1.4%) . Leukoplakia was observed only in two people (0.1%).No case of malignant lesions was detected. No statistically significant difference was confirmed between the two groups regarding smoking, opium consumption, medication and oral and dental hygiene.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our data has provided baseline information about epidemiologic aspects of oral mucosal lesions which can be valuable in organized national program targeting on oral health and hygiene in the society.
authors.affiliation: Gastrointestinal and Liver Diseases Research Center (GLDRC), Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Fariborz
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Mansour Ghanaei
authors.affiliation: Gastrointestinal and Liver Diseases Research Center (GLDRC), Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Farahnaz
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Joukar
authors.affiliation: Gastrointestinal and Liver Diseases Research Center (GLDRC), Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Maryam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rabiei
authors.affiliation: Gastrointestinal and Liver Diseases Research Center (GLDRC), Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Alireza
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dadashzadeh
authors.affiliation: Gastrointestinal and Liver Diseases Research Center (GLDRC), Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kord Valeshabad
keywords: Adult; Iran; Mouth Mucosa