Oral and maxillofacial lesions in older individuals and associated factors: A retrospective analysis of cases retrieved in two different services

BACKGROUND: Studies on the oral and maxillofacial lesions (OMLs) in older people usually assess data of laboratory services and data from oral medicine clinic have been poorly described. The aim of this study was to describe and to compare OMLs in older individuals considering two data sources, besides to assess associated factors with the three most frequent lesions. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A retrospective study was conducted with individuals aged 60 years or older. Data of individuals and lesions reported in both services were collected. Univariate analysis was used to test the association between the occurrence of the lesion and the independent variables. The level of significance was set at 5%. RESULTS: A total of 1,695 (37.3%) records were from the Oral Medicine clinic and 2,848 (62.7%) from the Laboratory service. Inflammatory/reactive lesion group was the most frequent in both services (40.4% in Oral Medicine Clinic and in 44.2% Laboratory). The second and third groups of lesions in the Oral Medicine clinic were infectious diseases (18.5%), and variations of normality (10.8%), while in the laboratorial service were the malignant neoplasms (17.6%) and potentially malignant disorders (13.3%). Differences between services regarding the frequency of lesion groups occurred (p<0.05), except for pigmented (p=0.054) and infectious (p=0.054) groups. Females (OR: 2.08; CI: 1.81–2.39) and individuals who wore a removable prosthesis (OR: 3.99; CI: 2.83–5.62) were also likely to have inflammatory fibrous hyperplasia. Old–old individuals (OR: 1.70; CI: 1.30–2.21), male (OR: 3.63; CI: 3.00–4.39), smoking (OR: 6.05; CI: 4.84–7.56) or alcohol use (OR: 3.95; CI: 3.12–5.01) were likely to have squamous cell carcinoma. CONCLUSIONS: The results showed different frequencies of OMLs in older individuals according to the data sources and age group. The findings are important to direct public policies for this age group. Key words:Oral medicine, laboratory service, older adult, oral diagnosis, oral and maxillofacial pathology.