Prevalence of non-pathological conditions of the oral cavity in patients attending the diagnostic service of the Dr. Rene Puig Bentz dental clinic of the Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez Ureña, period January-April / May-August 2024.
Description
Non-pathological conditions are anatomical variations that develop in bone tissue and oral mucosa. Most epidemiological studies have been carried out in American, Asian and European countries, but cultural, ethnic and demographic differences limit their direct extrapolation to the Dominican population. The objective of this observational, descriptive, cross-sectional study was to determine the prevalence of non-pathological conditions of the oral cavity in patients attending the diagnostic service of the Dr René Puig Bentz Dental Clinic. The sample of this study consisted of 250 patients aged between 18 and 70 years. Personal data and medical history were recorded and intraoral examinations were carried out to identify clinical findings such as geographic tongue, fissured tongue, palatal torus, mandibular torus, vestibular frenulum appendage, Fordyce granules, leukoedema and racial melanosis. Age and sex predilection and some related factors were investigated. As a result, a high prevalence of non-pathological conditions was found in patients attending the diagnostic service. The most frequently diagnosed non-pathological condition was fissured tongue and less frequently leukoedema. The female sex had a higher predilection for non-pathological conditions than the male sex, and the majority of patients with non-pathological conditions had a higher prevalence of leukoedema.
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Steps to reproduce
After obtaining permission from the clinic director and the diagnostic area, we created an informed consent form that clearly explained the study's participation process. This consent had to be signed by the patient, the teacher in charge of the diagnostic area shift, and one of the study representatives. Next, a data collection form was created, consisting of three parts: patient personal data, personal and family history, and the clinical section where all the non-pathological conditions we wanted to evaluate were recorded. A clinical examination was performed to look for any conditions, and the process concluded with taking photographs of the oral cavity. This information from the forms was transferred to an Excel document, which was analyzed by a statistician. This analysis helped us answer all our objectives and variables evaluated in this study.