[Oral lesions in patients with psychiatric disorders]

Oral diseases in psychiatric patients are usually a result of bad oral hygiene and psychopharmaceutical side-effects.

The aim of this study was to detect oral lesions in patients hospitalized in psychiatric institutions with the confirmed diagnosis of psychiatric illness and mood disorder with psychotic characteristics, as well as to discover the factors that can influence these oral lesions.

Cross-section study consisted of 186 hospitalized patients with psychiatric disorders in the experimental group, out of whom 87 were males and 99 females. Patients were aged from 18 to 59 years, mean age 46.0 +/- 8.0 years. The control group consisted of 186 healthy persons matched for age and gender. Data on oral lesions were obtained within history and clinical examination of the oral cavity. Other medical data were collected from medical documentation. Statistical analysis was performed by Student's t-test, chi-square test and logistic regression.

Dry mouth was registered in 78.5% of patients. The difference in tongue and lip lesions, burning and stinging symptoms, bruxism, facial pain, low saliva rates, halitosis, taste changes and swallowing difficulties between the patients and healthy persons was highly statistically significant (p < 0.001). Age and gender, as well as the factors of main disease, influence burning and stinging, bruxism, low saliva rates, swallowing difficulties, taste changes and facial pain of the psychiatric patients.

Results imply that psychiatric patients are more frequently involved with oral lesions than healthy persons. It is necessary to organize specific preventive and educational oral health programmes with these patients, as well as with doctors who treat the basic illness.