Diagnosis of the angular hyperkeratotic lesions and the incidence of the etiologic factors

Abstract

Background: Hyperkeratotic lesions located at the angle of the mouth are common among patients attendingdental clinics. Most dentists are unaware of it since the patients are not seeking care. The purpose of the presentstudy was to find out the incidence of the diagnosed lesions and their relation with the etiologic or initiating factors.Materials and methods: A total of (112) patient’s (62) males and (50) females having angular hyperkeratotic lesionswere selected from patients attending the dental clinic in Baghdad dental school. The clinical diagnosis and theprogression of the lesions were conducted by using 1% toluidine blue stain to confirm the premalignant potentialsand to delineate the margins of the lesion for the biopsy. Microscopic examinations were done for the confirmationof the final diagnosis. The associating factors like smoking, alcohol, dental irritation, prosthesis, systemic diseases, andangular chelitis were recorded in the patient information sheet for the result analysis.Results: The results showed that the benign hyperkeratotic lesions were the higher (36.6%) in distribution, while themalignant neoplasms were the 2nd (25.89%) in frequency, followed by premalignant lesions (21.42%), lichen planus(12.5%), and benign growth (3.57%). Smoking habit was the most common associating factor (54.6%), followed byangular chelitis (48.2%), dental irritation (43.7%), systemic diseases (35.7%), dental prosthesis (28.5%) and alcoholconsumption 0.05%.Conclusion: The hyperkeratotic lesions occurred in a wide range of ages. The benign lesions were the most commontypes. However a significant number of cases had premalignant and malignant changes. The presence of theassociating factors acting alone or in combination were having a role in the existence of the lesions. Thepremalignant potentials increase with age and the chronicity of the associating factors such as smoking and angularchelitis were having a significant role in existence of the lesions. In addition, the results showed that the angularhyperkeratotic lesions existed in the majority of the patients were bilateral in behavior.