Abstract:

Oral leukoplakia is considered as the most common premalignant lesion of the oral cavity. The aim of this retrospective study was to analyze the etiological factors of oral leukoplakia. This retrospective study was carried out to investigate oral leukoplakia cases of patients who were referred to Oral Diagnosis Clinic, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology, Faculty of Dentsitry, Kocaeli University between 2014-2016. In this study, medical history, habits of the patients, clinical and histopathological features of the lesions results were evaluated. Of the 12 patients (aged between 30 to 67) included in our study,8 of the patients were female, and 4 were male. Medical history of patients were recorded as hypertension in 3 patients, diabetes mellitus type II in 2 patients, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in one patient. 10 of the patients were smokers and 2 of the patients are non-smokers. Oral leukoplakia lesions were located at buccal mucosa in 9 cases, hard plate in 3 cases and lateral of tongue in 2 cases. Squamous cell carcinoma was diagnosed histopatologically in one patient, hyperkeratosis in 9 patients, mild dysplasia in one patient and moderate dysplasia in one patient. In this study group, the relationship was found between leukoplakia and smoking (83%). Due to the majority of smokers in oral leukoplakia patients are smokers, smoking can be said as the most common risk factor for the leukoplakia. Clinics must be aware of these lesions and encourage patients to quit smoking. On the other hand, considering the literature, other risk factors such as human papilloma virus, synergistic effect of alcohol, the presence of atrophic epithelium and dietary factors should also be investigated for non-smoking patients in future studies.

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