Relationship of Oral Clinic-Cytological Mucosal Changes with Oral Hygiene and Socioeconomic Status in HIV/AIDS patients

Oral lesions are an essential component of disease progression in HIV/AIDS patients and are related mostly to poor oral hygiene and low socioeconomic status. These lesions can further lead to nutritional and psychosocial problems in these patients. No study has been carried out in Pakistan to find out the relation between the frequency of oral lesions and poor oral hygiene as well as poor socioeconomic status. For this purpose, present study was designed and comprised of sixty HIV/AIDS patients whose oral clinical lesions were diagnosed clinically followed by cytological examination of oral mucosal smears using routine and special stains. Simplified oral hygiene index (OHI-S) was used for scoring the oral hygiene. Patients with the income of <10,000 PRs were considered poor. Regarding the results although no statistically significant value (p<0.05) was obtained but higher frequency of oral lesions were seen in HIV/AIDS patients belonging to low socioeconomic status whereas an inverse relationship was seen with frequency of oral lesions and good oral hygiene. The HIV/AIDS patients should be encouraged to improve their oral hygiene to minimize the oral lesions. Proper awareness along with free medical care should be given to these poor patients who in turn will improve their overall health.