Factitious injury of the oral mucosa: a case series

Gingival and oral mucosal tissues can be the site of a number of mucocutaneous and ulcerative conditions. Generally, these are not difficult to identify on the basis of clinical characteristics, and diagnosis can be aided by the use of routine histopathological and immunopathological techniques as well as other laboratory investigations. Self-induced or factitious injury (FI) of the oral mucosal tissues may present a confusing clinical picture, and be diagnosed erroneously as a mucocutaneous disorder in spite of the absence of appropriate pathological and immunopathological findings, or a failure to respond to routine treatment. A case series is presented here outlining 4 cases of FI which presented initially as mucocutaneous disease. These cases were investigated to rule out systemic or local causes, in order to establish a diagnosis of FI. Treatment of these conditions was facilitated with placebo or sham procedures which were designed primarily to cover the lesions. In most cases, the self injurious behavior could be linked to secondary gain.