Evaluation of the prevalence of developmental oral mucosa anomalies among students of Hamadan University of Medical Sciences in 2009

Developmental anomalies of the oral mucosa are agroup of lesions that are normal condition rather than having virtual diseasecharacteristic. The prevalence of oral mucosal abnormalities differs betweenindividuals that could be associated to genetic and/or environmental factors. Theaim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of these lesions as well as todetermine their relation to gender in a population of students of HamadanUniversity of Medical Sciences. A total of 162 students from the Hamadan Universityof Medical Sciences in 2009 were examined to determine the prevalence ofmucosal anomalies. All students were examined using dental unit light anddental mirrors. A questionnaire was completed for each subject. In thisquestionnaire, it was asked about demographic data and about their generalhealth and diseases. Descriptive and comparative statistical analyses wereperformed using SPSS software. To compare the differences between male andfemale subjects, Fisher exact test was performed. A p value less than 0.05considered significant. Out of 162 cases examined, 63.6% demonstrated at least a mucosalanomaly. The most common developmental mucosal anomaly was commissurallip pit (22.8%), fissured tongue (21.6%), and palatal torus (10.5%). Theprevalence of other mucosal anomalies was only less than 10%. The findings of this study showed that the prevalence of dental andmucosal abnormalites was high in this population, requiring its teaching tomedical and dental students.