TY - JOUR T1 - Investigating the Clinical Presentation of Oral Submucous Fibrosis: Patterns and Progression A1 - Jie-Ru You A1 - Ya-Ting Chen A1 - Chia-Yu Hsieh A1 - Sin-Yu Chen A1 - Tzu-Yao Lin A1 - Jing-Syuan Shih A1 - Guan-Ting Chen A1 - Sheng-Wei Feng A1 - Tzu-Yu Peng A1 - Chia-Yu Wu A1 - I-Ta Lee JF - International Journal of Dental Research and Allied Sciences Y1 - 2023 VL - 3 IS - 2 SP - 9 EP - 15 N2 - Oral submucous fibrosis (OSMF) is a complex, collagen-related metabolic disorder that is mainly caused by chronic areca nut consumption. This lesion is classified as a ‘potentially premalignant oral epithelial lesion (PPOEL)’, which has the potential to regress if detected in its early stages. This study aimed to analyze the prevalence of clinical symptoms among OSMF patients visiting a dental institution and to explore the relationship between specific symptoms and the severity of disease progression. Retrospective data from 155 OSMF patients were collected and analyzed over one year. The prevalence of OSMF in different age groups and genders was examined using SPSS software. A Chi-square test was used to determine the association between gender and primary symptoms, as well as between the distribution of symptoms and disease grading. The results showed that 91.89% of the affected individuals were male, while 8.11% were female. The most frequently reported symptoms were a burning sensation (35.1%) and restricted mouth opening (35.1%), followed by cheek pain (18.9%) and oral ulcers (10.8%). Notably, symptomatic cases were only observed in stages 2, 3, and 4, according to the classification of Kerr et al. While there was no statistically significant association between gender and specific symptoms (P = 0.63, P > 0.05), a significant association was found between symptom distribution and disease grading (P = 0.0001, P < 0.05). These findings suggest that OSMF patients experience significant symptoms only in advanced stages, thereby increasing the complexity of treatment and patient care. UR - https://tsdp.net/article/investigating-the-clinical-presentation-of-oral-submucous-fibrosis-patterns-and-progression-e7k12axkit97wx5 ER -