The objective of the study was to evaluate the prevalence of oral mucosal changes (OML) in Eluru, Andhra Pradesh and to determine possible associations of OML with respect to age, gender and habits.

The study sample consisted of 3035 patients collected from outpatients seeking dental treatment in department of Oral Medicine and radiology. The subjects were interviewed by trained interviewers and underwent a clinical examination of the oral mucosa performed according to WHO guidelines. A specially prepared color atlas of OML was used for lesion recognition and confirmation.

The data obtained were tabulated and subjected to statistical analysis utilizing the SPSS (statistical package for the social sciences) soft ware version 10.0. Pearson chi-square test was applied to test the significance between mucosal changes with respect age, gender and habits.

The overall classification among 3035 samples showed 1042 cases presented with one or more mucosal changes/lesions/ conditions, which constituted a total of about 1489 lesions. Among 1489 lesions, 929 mucosal changes were either normal variants or developmental anomalies, 206 were traumatic lesions, 254 were tobacco induced, 22 were of infectious origin and 78 were miscellaneous conditions.

The overall mucosal changes noted in the study was 49.06% and the most prevalent lesions were linea alba, frictional keratosis and Fordyce granules. Mucosal changes were predominantly noted in males, in buccal mucosa and in the age group of 16-30 yrs.