Evaluation of Burden of Oral Pathologies at a Tertiary Care Hospital in Karachi, Pakistan

Introduction: Pakistan is considered an underdeveloped country. Health-related issues should be equally addressed as economic issues of the country. Knowledge about the burden of diseases is of essential importance which helps to priorities the strategic planning of health policy in the country. Aims and objectives: The objective of this study was to evaluate the burden of oral pathology cases reported to the Faciomaxillary OPD of Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, Karachi. Materials and Methods: This retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted in Abbasi Shaheed hospital to analyze the Oral pathology cases. Through non-probability purposive sampling, all cases of oral pathologies reported in Faciomaxillary OPD of Abbasi Shaheed hospital in the last 5 years i.e. From July 2014 to June 2019 were included. The inclusion criteria were patients from both genders, aged between 6 months to 75 years, having complaints of oral pathological lesions. All other cases reported to the OPD, other than oral pathologies e.g., trauma, gunshot wound, etc. were excluded Results: Males account for many patients. A total of 2000 cases were recruited. Soft tissue pathologies were 1300 while 700 were hard tissue pathologies. The p-value for gender, age, and zones of Karachi was non-significant hence there was no relation between the variables with oral pathologies. Conclusion: The burden of oral pathology cases reported to the faciomaxillary OPD of Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, Karachi, is quite high. More adequate and comprehensive planning and patient awareness should be executed to deal with ailments.