Prevalence of oral soft tissue lesions in the victims of chemical bombardments in Kerman city

During Iran-Iraq war, Iraqi troops used chemical weapons especially sulfur mustard (SM) gas against the Iranian soldiers several times. Results of previous studies and observations have all emphasized that chemical weapons pose hazardous effects on different human organs such as lungs, skin, hematopoietic tissues and sexual organs. Since no previous surveys were done on oral mucosa lesions in the victims of mustard gas, the aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of such lesions among veterans exposed to mustard gas who were living in Kerman at the time of study. In this descriptive cross sectional study, 70 chemically injured veterans were included. All victims were examined and a questionnaire was filled by each. Chi-square and t-test were applied for data analysis via SPSS software. 72.5 percent of individuals in this study proved to have oral lesions. Among all victims, the most common lesions were pigmentation (45.7%) and oral ulcer (28.6%). No significant relations could be found between frequency of poisonings, severity of chemical effects and oral lesions, except for oral ulcers (p value < 0.005). The results of this study suggest that the prevalence of oral soft tissue lesions in chemical veterans is possibly equal to normal population.