Management of symptomatic erosive-ulcerative lesions of oral lichen planus in an adult Egyptian population using Selenium - ACE combined with topical corticosteroids plus antifungal agent

• Main Author: Mahmoud Helmy Belal
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications 2015-01-01
• Series: Contemporary Clinical Dentistry
• Subjects: Antioxidant; clinical trial; Egypt; erosive; oral lichen planus; Selenium-ACE; treatment; ulcerative
• Online Access: http://www.contempclindent.org/article.asp?issn=0976-237X;year=2015;volume=6;issue=4;spage=454;epage=460;aulast=Belal
• ISSN: 0976-237X; 0976-2361

Aim: Oral lichen planus (OLP) is a chronic mucocutaneous disease with an immunological etiology. This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of selenium combined with Vitamins A, C & E (Selenium-ACE) in the treatment of erosive-ulcerative OLP as an adjunctive to topical corticosteroids plus antifungal agent. Subjects and Methods: Thirty patients with a confirmed clinical and histopathologic diagnosis of OLP participated in this clinical trial. Patients were randomly allocated into one of three groups and treated as follows: (I) Topical corticosteroids, (II) topical corticosteroids plus antifungal, and (III) SE-ACE combined with topical corticosteroids plus antifungal. The patients were followed for 6 weeks. The pain and severity of the lesions were recorded at the initial and follow-up visits. All recorded data were analyzed using paired t-test and ANOVA test. A P ≤ 0.05 was considered significant. Results: The experimental groups showed a marked reduction in pain sensation and size of lesions, particularly in the final follow-up period, but there was no significant difference between the first two Groups I and II. However, healing of lesions and improvement of pain sensation was effective in Group III since a significant difference was found favoring Group III over both Groups I and II. Conclusion: No significant difference was found in treating erosive-ulcerative lesions of OLP by topical corticosteroids alone or combined with antifungal. However, when using SE-ACE in combination with topical corticosteroids plus antifungal, this approach may be effective in managing ulcerative lesions of OLP; but more research with a larger sample size and a longer evaluation period may be recommended.