Various forms of tobacco usage and its associated oral mucosal lesions.

BACKGROUND To study the various forms of tobacco usage and its associated oral mucosal lesions among the patients attending Vishnu Dental College Bhimavaram. MATERIAL AND METHODS An observational cross-sectional study was conducted in a total of 450 patients who were divided into three groups based upon type of tobacco use, as Group-1 Reverse smoking, Group-2 Conventional smoking, Group-3 Smokeless tobacco group and each group consists of 150 subjects. RESULTS Reverse smoking was observed to be more prevalent among old females with smoker's palate and carcinomatous lesions being the most common. Conventional smoking was observed more in male patients with maximum occurrence of leukoplakia and tobacco associated melanosis. Smokeless tobacco habit was predominantly seen in younger males. Habit specific lesions like tobacco pouch keratosis, Oral Submucous Fibrosis (OSMF), Quid induced lichenoid reaction were noticed in smokeless tobacco habit group except for erythroplakia which was noticed only in conventional smoking group and it was not significant statistically. CONCLUSIONS In the present study it was found that the usage of reverse smoking habit was most commonly seen in females and this habit is practiced in and surrounding areas of Bhimavaram with more occurrence of carcinoma compared to conventional smoking and smokeless tobacco. KEY WORDS Tobacco, reverse smoking, conventional smoking, smokeless tobacco, carcinoma.