Prevalence of non-odontogenic infectious lesions of oral mucosa in a group of Iranian patients during 11 years: a cross sectional study

Background and Objectives: Oral mucosal infections are an important type of oral lesions. The aim of this study was to determine the epidemiology of oral mucosal infectious lesions in patients who referred to Oral Medicine Department of Shiraz Dental School, Iran during 11 years. Materials and Methods: In this cross sectional study, records of all patients who referred to Oral Medicine Department of Shiraz Dental School from September 2007 to January 2018 were assessed and those data sheets which their definitive diagnosis were a kind of oral mucosal infectious lesion were recorded. Pearson Chi- square test was used for statistical analysis. Level of significance was considered as P value < 0.05. Results: Overall prevalence of oral mucosal infectious lesions was 9.47%. Generally, mean age of patients was 42.92 +/- 18.84 and most of them were female. Most common type of infectious lesions was fungal infections, but viral and bacterial infections were less common. Among fungal infections, most lesions were candidiasis and only 3 cases were diagnosed as deep fungal infection. HSV infection was the second common oral infectious lesion. There was a significant relation between infectious lesion and systemic disease or medication use (P=0.000). Conclusion: This study is the first epidemiologic study in Iran, concerning oral mucosal infectious lesions. Total of 9.47% of oral lesions were infective, candidiasis and HSV lesions were the most common oral mucosal infective disease, which were more prevalent amongst female, middle age people and patients with systemic disease.