Oral diseases: a 14-year experience of a Chilean institution with a systematic review from eight countries

Abstract

Background: Retrospective studies to assess the distribution of oral diseases (ODs) are helpful in estimating the prevalence of oral diagnoses in the population, and thus help in preventive and curative services. Prevalence and frequency data for ODs are available from many countries, but information from Chile is scarce.

Material and methods: This study investigated the frequency of OD in a Chilean population. For this, we included all patients treated at the University of Talca (UTALCA, Chile) between 2001 and 2014. Patient characteristics were retrieved from medical files. To contextualize our results, we conducted a systematic review (SystRev) using Publish or Perish software (PoP), Google Scholar and MEDLINE/PubMed.

Results: One hundred sixty-six ODs were diagnosed, and the most prevalent groups were soft tissue tumours, epithelial pathology and salivary gland pathology. Individually, irritation fibroma, oral lichen planus (OLP) and mucocele were the most common diagnoses. ODs frequently affected unspecified parts of the mouth (including cheek, vestibule and retromolar area), gum, lips, tongue and palate. In the SystRev, the more studied diagnoses were leukoplakia, OLP and recurrent aphthous stomatitis; prevalent lesions included Fordyce's spots, recurrent aphthous stomatitis and fissured tongue. Chilean patients and SistRev shared almost all ODs.

Conclusions: The results reflect ODs diagnosed in a specialized service of oral pathology and medicine in Chile and will allow the establishment of preventive/curative policies, adequate health services and dentistry curriculum.

Figure 1

Overview of oral diseases with a frequency ≥10 in a sample of 1,000 Chilean patients. The heat map combines the most frequent ODs (irritation fibroma to radicular cyst), rates by global ranking, age ranges (in years) and anatomical sites (according ICD-O-3). Higher numbers (frequency) represent intense and saturated colours of these lines. In anatomical sites, other and unspecified parts of the mouth include cheek, vestibule and retromolar area (ICD-O-3 C02 code). Another category represents the remaining anatomical sites. In our sample (originated from a specific specialty) some lesions appear to be magnified. For example, oral nevi and trigeminal neuralgia are more common than denture-related stomatitis and radicular cyst. This is explained because denture-related stomatitis and radicular cyst are resolved at the clinic of oral rehabilitation. periodontics and endodontics.

Figure 2

PRISMA diagram of studies searched and selected. We searched the Google Scholar data source using Publish or Perish (PoP) software, based on the terms: “oral lesions” (all the words) and “prevalence frequency” (any of the words), using “title words only”. Duplicate articles were eliminated using CleanPoP.

Figure 3

Relevant diagnoses. Top five ranking for more studied lesions in the systematic review (3A). ODs reported in ≥4 articles. The heat map combines the most frequent lesions (leukoplakia to traumatic ulcers), rates by number of articles (grey bar) and prevalence across studies (ordered by Google Scholar rank). Higher numbers represent intense and saturated colours (extreme values on the right-hand side). Venn diagram for the most frequent and prevalent diagnosis (3B). Comparison of rank lists for the current study (our sample), and systematic review (studies around the world). Twelve of the 17 diagnoses (70.6%) in our top ten ranking were shared with selected studies.