Justification:

There are few studies that document the frequency of oral mucosal lesions in children and adolescents, and all of them reveal different results.

Materials and method:

This was an observational, descriptive, transversal survey, in children between the ages of 3 and 12, that participate in the “Programa de Salud Bucal de la Facultad de Odontología de la Universidad Católica del Uruguay”/ Oral Health Program of the Dentistry School of Uruguayan Catholic University. Lesions in the whole oral cavity were taken into account, describing and registering each one of the findings. The 7 lesions more frequent in the bibliography consulted were selected. A descriptive statistical analysis was made using the variables age, gender and dentition stages.

Results:

191 children were examined; lesions were found in 103 children. Morsicatio buccarum, meaning the bitening of the cheek mucosa (self inflicted trauma), was the most common lesion. The second most frequent lesion was Geographic tongue.

Conclusions:

Girls had higher probability of presenting a lesion than boys. The age range between 6-9 had more risk of developing a lesion than the group ranging in age from 9-12. The children with mixed dentition had more risk of having Morsicatio buccarum than the children with permanent dentition; and the children ranging in age from 6-9 had more probabilities of presenting Morsicatio buccarum than the children ranging 9-12. We could not find any other survey epidemiologically comparable that described the same lesions than ours. This leads to the conclussion that it is necessary to perform further studies with the same methodology and a wider range of diagnosis criteria.

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