Prevalence of tongue lesions in the Indian population.
OBJECTIVE
Tongue lesions are a health concern for the dental practitioners and the patients as they constitute a significant proportion of oral mucosal lesions. The aim of the present study was to determine the prevalence of various tongue lesions in the Indian population.


METHODS
4926 patients attending the Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology were examined for the presence of various tongue lesions during the period from October, 2010 to September, 2012. The age of the patients ranged from 12-80 years with a mean age of 36.51 years.


RESULTS
The prevalence of tongue lesions was 12.07%. The most common lesion diagnosed was coated tongue affecting 28.0% of the subjects, followed by geographic tongue (16.4%), fissured tongue (14.9%) and depapillated tongue (11.5%). Males were more frequently affected than females. The most common systemic condition observed in the patients with tongue lesions was anaemia (189), followed by hypertension (47) and diabetes mellitus (38).


CONCLUSIONS
The high prevalence necessitates adequate awareness of the various tongue lesions in the general population. The dental clinicians should also be knowledgeable about the etiopathogenesis, clinical presentation, diagnosis, and treatment of these lesions. Key words:Tongue lesions, prevalence, Indian population, coated tongue.
Dept of Oral medicine and radiology. Jodhpur Dental College, Jodhpur National University, Jodhpur (Raj). India.
Santosh
S
Patil
Dept of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics, Jodhpur Dental College, Jodhpur National University, Jodhpur (Raj). India.
Sumita
S
Kaswan
Dept of Oral Pathology and Microbiology. Jaipur Dental College and Hospital. Jaipur (Raj). India.
Farzan
F
Rahman
Dept of Oral medicine and radiology. NIMS. Jaipur (Raj). India.
Bharati
B
Doni