Oral Submucous Fibrosis: Clinical Stage, Functional Stage and Histopathological Grade Correlation

Background- Oral submucosal fibrosis (OSMF) is a common precancerous condition predominantly affecting the oral cavity. There are several contributing factors to its pathogenesis, areca nut chewing being the primary culprit. OSMF reversal is difficult once the disease sets in. Hence, after its diagnosis, staging becomes imperative as it affects the treatment plan. Several classification methods have been developed by various authors to categorize the disease based on its clinical, functional, and Histopathological characteristics. The main aim to conduct this study was to correlate clinical and histopathological staging. Materials & Methods- This study involved 30 patients who had been diagnosed with OSMF both Clinically and Histopathologically. All 30 patients were classified and were categorized according to their clinical and functional stages after inspection. Following this, histopathological grading was done. Results- The statistical analysis showed that there was a wide similarity between the clinical and functional staging. However, no significant similarity or correlation was found between the clinical and functional staging with its corresponding histopathological grades. Conclusions- Our study concluded that there is strong correlation between clinical and functional grading