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Updated: Aug 26, 2025
Isolation, Characterization and Functional Examination of the Gingival Immune Cell Network
Published on: February 16, 2016
Population-based cohort study to assess the gingival lesions in 1319 patients with lichen planus
Paolo G Arduino1, Alessio Gambino1, Alessandra Macciotta2
1Department of Surgical Sciences, Oral Medicine Section, CIR-Dental School, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
Aims:
Oral lichen planus (OLP) is a chronic immune disease. In this paper, we evaluated the overall characters, clinical presentation, and outcome of gingival lesions in OLP Italian patients.
Methods And Results:
A retrospective cohort study was accomplished: a total of 1319 charts were investigated, of whom 922 were female (69.9%): 617 patients (46.8%) manifested white lesions and 702 red ones (53.2%). While most patients had several oral sites of involvement, the gingiva was the unique location in 103 cases. Symptoms were reported in 480 patients (36.4%): 286 patients with erosive OLP, 103 with atrophic form, and 91 with a white form. Long-lasting surveillance showed that only 40 patients (3.03%) had a total clinical signs remission. Regarding OLP medical treatment provided, patients attending less frequently a dental office underwent more often a specific therapy.
Conclusions:
To the best of our knowledge, this is the biggest collections of patients with gingival OLP ever described; exclusive gingival lesions are, however, rare and unlikely to undergo a malignant transformation. Moreover, gum lesions seemed to anticipate the appearance of oral lesions and a higher rate of OLP therapy was observed in patients with less frequent dental check-ups and oral hygiene instructions.
