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Objectives: To investigate the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of oral lichen planus (OLP) in a group
of Croatian patients seen between 2006 and 2012.
Study
D
esign: A group of 563 patients with a diagnosis of OLP was retrospectively reviewed in our clinic. Data
regarding age, gender, medical history, drugs, smoking, alcohol, chief complaint, clinical type, localization, his
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tology, treatment and malignant transformation were registered.
Results: Of the 563 patients, 414 were females and 149 were males. The average age at the diagnosis was 58
(range 11-94). The most common site was buccal mucosa (82.4%). Most of our patients did not smoke (72.5%)
or consume alcohol (69.6%). Patients reported oral soreness (43.3%), mucosal roughness (7%), xerostomia (3%),
gingival bleeding (2%) and altered taste (0.5%) as the chief complaint, while almost half of them were asympto
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matic (44.2%). The most common types of OLP were reticular (64.8%) and erosive (22.9%). Plaque-like (5.7%)
atrophic/erythemtous (4.3%) and bullous (2.3%) type were also observed. Malignant transformation rate of 0.7%
was recorded.
Conclusions: OLP mostly affects non-smoking middle-aged women. Buccal mucosa is the most commonly af
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fected site. In almost half of the cases patients are asymptomatic. In spite of the small risk for malignant transfor
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mation all patients should be regularly monitored.
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