[Dental perspective on Crohn's disease: literature review]

Crohn's disease (CD) is a chronic, idiophatic inflammatory process of the gastrointestinal tract and its cause remains unknown. It can affect any part of the digestive system, but preferentially involves the terminal part of the small intestine and the beginning of the large intestine. The disease course is usually long-term with episodes of remission and relapses. The clinical presentation of the disease varies and depends on the site of inflammation. Oral lesions can occur in 80% of pediatric and 90% of adult patients with CD. The most frequent are swelling of the oral mucosa with surface cobblestoning, ulcerations, candidiasis, angular cheilitis. The difficulty in diagnosis, resulting from the non-specific clinical manifestation, hamper proper diagnosis and delay the start of treatment. This paper presents etiology, epidemiology, clinical features and basic therapeutic capabilities for CD in the light of the literature. Oral manifestation of this disease was particularly emphasized.