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. 2024 Mar 1;29(2):e152-e162.
doi: 10.4317/medoral.25938.

Oral lichen planus in children: A systematic review

F Spirito  1 , M Dioguardi, V-C Caponio, M Ambrosino, E Lo Muzio, L Lo Muzio
Affiliations

Oral lichen planus in children: A systematic review

F Spirito et al. Med Oral Patol Oral Cir Bucal. .

Abstract

Background: Oral Lichen Planus is a common chronic inflammatory disease of the oral mucosa. The prevalence in adults ranges between 0.5% and 2%, while in children is reported to be about 0,03%. Clinical features of Oral Lichen Planus could be variable in both adults and children, ranging from painless white hyperkeratotic lesions to painful erythematous atrophic ones. Actually, there are no systematic reviews in the literature on OLP in children, whereby this paper aims to summarize all the pathophysiological aspects and identify all cases described in the literature of Oral Lichen Planus in children, reporting their clinical characteristics.

Material and methods: A systematic review of the literature was performed in online databases including PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Science Direct, EMBASE. In addition, in order to identify reports not otherwise identifiable, an analysis of the gray literature was performed on google scholar and in Open Gray.

Results: By literature analysis, it emerged that most cases were reported from India. The mean age at time of diagnosis of the disease was 11 years, ranging from 3 to 17 years. The most frequent pattern was the reticular pattern followed by plaque-like, erosive, atrophic, sclerosus, and bullous. The buccal mucosa was the most involved oral site, followed by the tongue, lips and gingiva.

Conclusions: Although Oral Lichen Planus in children is rare, it may cause oral discomfort and need to be differentiated from other oral white lesions and/or chronic ulcers.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of interest The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow diagram for the selection process of identified articles.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Case distribution according to age.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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