Prevalence of Tobacco Smoking/ Smokeless Tobacco in Patients with Oral Lichen Planus

The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of tobacco smoking/ smokeless tobacco in patients with oral lichen planus. The purpose of the study was to determine if the usage of tobacco is associated with an increase in the occurrence of oral lichen planus among the patients attending Saveetha Dental Hospital, Chennai. A hospital based cross-sectional study was conducted by collecting data by reviewing patients data and analysing the data of 86000 patients between June 2019 and March 2020. 59 patients with oral lichen planus attending Saveetha Dental Hospital, Chennai were included in the study. The data were gathered through semi- closed ended questionnaires and clinical examinations. Results showed that patients who do not consume tobacco have a higher rate of oral lichen planus compared to patients who consume tobacco (13.6%). Data analysis was done using a chi square analysis between tobacco habits with clinical variants (chi-square-3.181; df-5; p-0.023) we found the results were statistically significant (P<0.05) which implies that there was a higher prevalence of erosive and reticular forms of oral lichen planus. Prevalence of smoking/ smokeless tobacco in patients with oral lichen planus is significantly lower than patients who do not consume any form of tobacco.