Oral health‑related quality of life in erosive/ulcerative oral lichen planus patients

Abstract

Background: Oral lichen planus (OLP) is a chronic oral mucosal disease. It can manifest as
severe erosive/ulcerative oral lesions, causing pain and discomfort. Oral health‑related quality of
life (OHRQoL) may be deteriorated due to the patient’s symptoms. The aim of this study was to
evaluate OHRQoL and its relation to oral pain in erosive/ulcerative OLP patients.
Materials and Methods: In this cross‑sectional study, patients with erosive/ulcerative OLP filled
out Chronic oral mucosal disease questionnaire (COMDQ). Meanwhile, they recorded their oral
pain through Visual analog scale (VAS). The Pearson’s correlation coefficient was used to analyze
the relationship between COMDQ score and VAS (IBM SPSS Statistics). P < 0.05 was considered
statistically significant.
Results: Sixty patients participated in the present study; 51 (85%) were women and 9 (15%)
were men. The mean age of participants was 50 ± 14.5 years. The mean score of COMDQ was
47.44 (±18.21). The mean VAS score was 4.5 (±2.4). COMDQ total and all domain scores were
significantly correlated with VAS (P < 0.05), except for the “Patient support” domain (P = 0.63).
Conclusion: In patients with erosive/ulcerative OLP, there was a significant correlation between
oral pain and COMDQ total score, as well as its physical, social, and emotional domains. It seems
that COMDQ can be a complementary tool for assessing treatment outcomes in OLP patients.
Key Words: Oral health, oral lichen planus, quality of life