A single-center 18-year experience with oral candidiasis in Brazil: a retrospective study of 1,534 cases

Abstract

Despite the large number of published studies about oralcandidiasis and associated risk factors, reports of large single-centerretrospective studies on the prevalence of oral candidiasis, riskfactors, and the oral candidiasis types diagnosed more frequentlyin oral diagnostic reference centers are scarce. The objective of thepresent study was to retrospectively survey the demographic andclinical profiles of 1,534 patients diagnosed with candidiasis andtreated at the Center for Diagnosis of Oral Diseases (CDOD), PelotasDental School, Federal University of Pelotas between 1997 and 2014.Using a retrospective, cross-sectional, epidemiological design, dataon race, gender, age, systemic diseases, oral candidiasis type andlocation, symptoms, and harmful habits such as smoking and alcoholconsumption were collected. The statistical analysis was performedusing STATA version 13.1. Risk factors for chronic atrophic candidiasis(CAC) were evaluated using Poisson regression with robust variance (p≤ 0.05). The majority of patients with oral candidiasis seen at the CDODover the 18-year period of analysis were Caucasian women, aged 51–60years, nonsmokers, and nondrinkers, with no systemic disease, andwho wore some form of dental prostheses. CAC was the single mostcommon clinical type of candidiasis detected, and the most frequentlyaffected oral site was the palate. These data from a large single-center inBrazil agree with previous evidence about the clinical and demographicprofiles of patients with oral candidiasis