[Assessment of severity of oral lichen planus using a new clinical index]

The goal of this study was to develop a clinical index to assess therapy of oral lichen planus (OLP) to be used in comparing the efficacy of two topical glucocorticoids. The clinical severity of non-gingival and gingival lichen planus and their severity from the patients' view were evaluated.

A clinical index for assessing the severity of oral lichen planus is described with which the clinical forms as well as all the varying combinations of forms can be addressed separately. The clinical classification of OLP into six variants according to Andreasen [1] is the basis of the index. The index provides information about the severity of the disease in single regions and in the patient as a whole. The index is subdivided into a basic index as well as supplementary indices, which are optional. The clinical forms and size of OLP are recorded using the basic index, while various form-specific features such as the intensity of whitish pattern or mucosal erythema can be assessed additionally using the supplementary indices. Non-gingival and gingival lichen planus are assigned with their own indices. An index of subjective symptoms consisting of a visual analogue scale and verbal scales is available for describing patient discomfort. There is also a short form of the index (study-region index/one-region index), whereby only a single selected region is assessed.

The index presented here is available as a new method of assessing OLP severity, offering both basic and advanced information for use especially in scientific studies of oral lichen planus.