Use of low level laser therapy for oral lichen planus: report of two cases

Oral Lichen Planus is a chronic inflammatory disease of unknown etiology. Erosive/ ulcerative oral lichen planus is often a painful condition that tends to become malignant, urging appropriate therapy

Laser therapy has recently been suggested as a new treatment option without significant side effects

This article presents two cases of erosive/ ulcerative oral lichen planus, who had not received any treatment before, treated with 630 nm low level laser. Lesion type and pain was recorded before and after treatment. Severity of lesions and pain were reduced after treatment

Low Level Laser Therapy was an effective treatment with no side effects and it may be considered as an alternative therapy for erosive/ulcerative oral lichen planus

[Approach to orofacial granulomatosis and review of literature]

Orofacial granulomatosis [OFG] comprises a group of diseases characterized by non-caseating granulomatous inflammation affecting the soft tissues of the oral and maxillofacial region. Wiesenfeld introduced the term orofacial granulomatosis in 1985 for the first time. The precise cause of OFG is unknown; however, some theories have been suggested including allergy, infection and genetic predisposition. The clinical presentation can be highly variable, making the diagnosis difficult to establish. The aim of this review was to define clinical features, differential diagnosis and treatment protocols of OFG. All English articles from 1950 to 2010 in Pubmed, InterScience, ScienceDirect, Google Scholar databases were searched using the keywords: orofacial granulomatosis, approach, and treatment. Persian articles were also selected from Iran Medex. Because of the relatively nonspecific clinical findings associated with a variety of granulomatous diseases, the diagnosis of orofacial granulomatous often presents a dilemma for the clinician. The most common differential diagnosis includes Crohn's disease, sarcoidosis, and infection. However, a variety of other conditions may be associated with granuloma formation. Often an extensive clinical, microscopic, and laboratory evaluation may be required to reach to definite diagnosis and proper treatment

three years retrospective study of prevalence of patients with oral lesions hospitalized in ENT ward of Qaem hospital

Epidemiologic studies have an important role in increasing our knowledge about the nature of diseases, which will result in better preventive and treatment modalities and promotes the general health and education of a society. These studies must be performed in all communities to obtain the geographical patterns of various diseases. One of the medical disciplines which have a close relation with dentistry is Otolaryngology. Some patients with malignant oral lesions, due to delayed referring have advanced or invasive lesions at their first admission, which necessitate hospitalization and extensive surgical interventions. On the other hand patients with posterior oral lesions seeking diagnosis and treatment, generally refer to ENT specialists rather than to dental practitioners. This was the reason why we were interested to study prevalence of patients with oral lesions admitted in ENT ward of a university hospital [Qaem hospital]. This was a retrograde study by using the existing data and reviewing the medical records of patients admitted between May 1999-2002 [Khordad 1378-81]. In case of pathology results, it was also added to our study sheets. We searched medical documents for the following criteria. 3497 patients admitted in ENT ward during the study period in ENT ward, that 141 cases were hospitalized for their oral lesions of which 4 were excluded because of lacking of medical documents. From the remaining 137 cases, the most common lesion was cleft palate [45.99%], followed by dental abscesses [15.32%] and oral SCC [13.14%], salivary gland tumor and hemangioma [4/38%]. Other lesions were sialadenitis, carcinoma of maxillary sinus, pseudoepithelial hyperplasia, central giant cell granuloma, fibrouse dysplasia, ranula, epidermoid cyst, Thyrogloss cyst, ameloblastoma, lymphangioma, angiofibroma. The most common location was maxilla [35.19%] and men were more affected than women. Our study revealed that if patients [except for developmental anomalies like cleft palate] refer in an early stage to their dentist and a careful examination is performed, they can be treated as outpatients or will need more conservative surgical interventions. These findings emphasize the important role of public educations and periodic examinations by dentists and the key role of preventive dentistry in oral health in general. Another problem to be addressed is that during the short course of education in ENT ward [one month for dental students] few number of cases with oral lesions may be observed, so it seems that this short course has little role in the educational programs of dental students and it should be revised

Frequency of psychiatric disorders in patients with oral lichen planus referred to oral medicine department of Mashhad dental school

The purpose of this study was to determine the frequency of psychiatric disorders in patients with oral lichen planus. In this descriptive cross sectional study, all the patients with oral lichen planus referred to Oral Medicine Department of Mashhad dental school [from September to October 2003] were examined by a psychiatrist and according to the criteria set by DSM-IV-IR, the presence and type of psychiatric disorders were evaluated. The data were analysed by chi-square and t-tests. Among 56 patients examined, 54 [96/43%] subjects were diagnosed with at least one psychiatric disorder. 96.41% of subjects were categorized as anxiety disorders. In this study, majority of the patients, with oral lichen planus had psychiatric disorders. So psychiatric disorders could have a role in developing oral lichen planus