Prevalence and age related risk of three clinical variants of aphthous stomatitis: A retrospective study

Abstract

Aphthous stomatitis is one of the most common conditions characterized by the repeated formation of benign and mouth ulcers (aphthae) in otherwise healthy individuals. The informal term canker sores is also used, mainly in North America, although this may also refer to any mouth ulcers. The case records of patients with aphthous stomatitis were assessed. The age, gender and the variant of aphthous stomatitis were recorded. The association between the gender and the variant of apthous stomatitis was assessed by chi-square test. Following the data tabulation in excel, the statistical analysis was done with SPSS.A total of 84 patients in the age range between 6 years to 73 years were recorded. From the collected data it was observed that 69% of the samples were males and 31% were females. The most common variant noted was the minor aphthous stomatitis. There was no association between the age and the occurrence of aphthous stomatitis(P>0.05) but there was a positive correlation between the gender and clinical variant.(P<0.05) Hence from the study it was concluded that age is not a risk factor for the development of aphthous stomatitis but males were more commonly affected.