THE INCIDENCE OF ORAL CANDIDIASIS IN DIABETES

Background: this study was done in order to find of the frequency of oral fungal infection associated with diabetes type 2 and its correlation with the age, gender, glycemic control, timespan of illness and kind of therapy. METHODS: This study was a cross sectional one, carried out at the medical unit 1, Benazir Bhutto hospital, Rawalpindi over the periods of 3months. This study included 305 diabetic patients admitted in the ward. Detail history of these patients was taken which included the age, family history, duration of illness, type of therapy and history of other comorbid. Oral examination of these patients was carried out to rule out candidiasis and grams staining were done from buccal mucosa scrapings to analyze fungal hyphae. RESULTS: Out of 305 patients examined, 71 patients had oral candidiasis. 58.64% patients with and 57.50% patients without oral fungal infection were male (p value >0.05). Mean age of patients with and without oral candidiasis was 58.4 +5.76 and 53.76+5.62 respectively. 25.56% Diabetic patients taking hypoglycemic drugs had incidence of oral candidiasis, whereas the people who used insulin for glycemic control account for 23.34%. Risk of oral fungal infection was noted high with the duration of diabetes, 58% patients had oral candidiasis that had diabetes for last 10-15 years. CONCLUSION: The incidence of oral fungal infection especially candidiasis increased with the duration of diabetes along with poor glycemic control and with the higher age group of the patients. Keywords: Candidiasis, diabetes mellitus, oral hypoglycemic, insulin