Epidemiological survey of oral lesions in children and adolescents in a Brazilian population.
OBJECTIVE
To identify the most frequent oral lesions in children and adolescents in Reference Units of Oral Lesions of Public Universities of Bahia, Brazil, in the period between 1996 and 2010, and estimate the association between socio-demographic factors and type of oral lesions found.


METHODS
Cross-sectional study using secondary data obtained from medical records, records of requests and reports of biopsies from patients aged between 0 and 19 years treated in Reference Units of Oral Lesions of Public Universities in Bahia, Brazil, in the period between 1996 and 2010. For data analysis, we used descriptive analysis of the variables, bivariate analysis by calculating the prevalence ratios (PR) to assess the association between oral lesions and gender, age and skin color, and the analysis of potential modifying and confounding effects by logistic regression modeling. To calculate the p-value of associations, we used the chi-square test, and p<0.05 was considered statistically significant.


RESULTS
There were 360 records of patients between 0 and 19 years (8.7% of total records). The results revealed 72 different types of lesions. The most prevalent lesions were mucoceles (14.2%), fibroma (5.6%) and pyogenic granuloma (5.3%). The variable "age" was the only socio-demographic characteristics among those analyzed that showed a statistically significant association with both neoplastic and non-neoplastic lesions, according to bivariate analysis, considering the rates adjusted for potential confounders. Neoplastic lesions appeared more often in the age group 0-9 years, while the non-neoplastic lesions were more prevalent in individuals 10-19 years. There was no effect modification noted in the predictive models analyzed.


CONCLUSIONS
The study identified the existence of a broad range of oral lesions affecting children and adolescents. Most of the lesions found were of the non-neoplastic type. The age of individuals was associated with the type of oral lesion found.
Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana, Departamento de Saúde, Núcleo de Câncer Oral, Av. Transnordestina, s/n - Módulo VI, Bairro Novo Horizonte, CEP: 44036-900 Feira de Santana, BA, Brasil. Electronic address: milllapp@yahoo.com.br.
Camila Porto
CP
Pessôa
Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana, Departamento de Saúde, Núcleo de Câncer Oral, Av. Transnordestina, s/n - Módulo VI, Bairro Novo Horizonte, CEP: 44036-900 Feira de Santana, BA, Brasil.
Técia Daltro Borges
TD
Alves
Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana, Departamento de Saúde, Núcleo de Câncer Oral, Av. Transnordestina, s/n - Módulo VI, Bairro Novo Horizonte, CEP: 44036-900 Feira de Santana, BA, Brasil.
Nilton César Nogueira
NC
dos Santos
Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana, Departamento de Saúde, Núcleo de Câncer Oral, Av. Transnordestina, s/n - Módulo VI, Bairro Novo Horizonte, CEP: 44036-900 Feira de Santana, BA, Brasil.
Heloísa Laís Rosário
HL
dos Santos
Universidade de São Paulo, Avenida Professor Lineu Prestes, 2277, Cidade Universitária, CEP: 05508-000 Sao Paulo, SP, Brasil.
Alana de Cássia Silva
Ade C
Azevedo
Universidade Federal da Bahia, Faculdade de Odontologia, Departamento de Apoio Diagnóstico e Terapêutica, Av. Araújo Pinho, 62, Canela, CEP: 40110-150 Salvador, BA, Brasil.
Jean Nunes
JN
dos Santos
Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana, Departamento de Saúde, Núcleo de Câncer Oral, Av. Transnordestina, s/n - Módulo VI, Bairro Novo Horizonte, CEP: 44036-900 Feira de Santana, BA, Brasil.
Márcio Campos
MC
Oliveira
D000293:Adolescent; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009059:Mouth Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000473:pathology; D015995:Prevalence; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
Adolescents; Children; Oral diseases