The challenge of oral diagnosis in psychiatric patients

Abstract

The objective of this work was to evaluate the prevalence of estomatological lesions in oral mucosa in the patients in the Caps II (Center for Psychosocial Care) of Blumenau - SC. The target population consisted of 200 psychiatric patients randomly selected. In order to collect data on estomatological lesions, oral cavity examinations were accomplished, observing the presence of nodules, papules, vesicles, ulcers, plaques, pustules, discolorations all over the oral cavity. Size, color, consistency, location, extension, shape were evaluated in these regions as well as the presence of symptomatology. An anamnesis was achieved in order to record the patients’ systemic disease, smoking and alcoholism habits as well as whether they had removable prosthesis or not. Age and psychiatric diagnosis was obtained from each patient’s medical records. From the 200 patients studied, 57 presented lesions in their oral mucosa. These results showed that 28.5% of the examined patients had oral lesions. This percentual is considered to be of high prevalence, especially when compared to the general population.