Insights from an awareness survey on oral submucous fibrosis (OSMF)

Abstract

Oral Submucous Fibrosis (OSMF) is characterized by Juxta-epithelial inflammation with oedema, fibroblasts, neutrophil and eosinophil inflammatory infiltrate. Therefore, it is of interest to gain insights from an awareness survey on ORAL SUBMUCOUS FIBROSIS (OSMF). The sample size was 100 patients who had participated in this survey in Tamilnadu, India where 93% of the subjects used tobacco products. 81% of the patients were not aware of the malignancy caused by OSMF. A significant number of males use more tobacco than females (p value = 0.006 (<0.05) in the sample dataset. Thus, there is a need to create awareness on OSMF among the general population to combat the associated diseases.