Oral submucous fibrosis--a treatment protocol based on clinical study of 100 patients in central India.

PURPOSE: Oral submucous fibrosis till date is a very poorly understood and unsatisfactorily treated disease with variable signs and symptoms. In this paper, we have classified the disease in different groups according to the clinical signs, radiological assessment, histopathological confirmation, progress, and severity of disease and proposed a treatment algorithm for effective treatment of the disease in 100 patients. MATERIAL AND METHOD: In our study, we randomly selected 100 patients of oral submucous fibrosis and classified them in to five groups based on clinical symptoms and radiological and histopathological parameters. We have given specific treatment for each group and followed them up for 2 years regularly. RESULTS: We found that almost all patients got symptomatic relief from the disease. Patient's interincisal mouth opening increased significantly. All patients can take regular diet. Progressive malignant transformation can be detected earlier to avoid future morbidity and mortality. CONCLUSION: Oral submucous fibrosis (OSMF) scoring index is very effective to decide the severity of disease and progress. Based on this scoring and grouping we can give definite prompt treatment to the patients with satisfactory results. Such a way this proposed scoring and staging can play major role in controlling and treating this widespread global disease.