A Clinico-histopathological Study of Association between Fibrosis and Mouth Opening in Oral Submucous Fibrosis

Oral submucous fibrosis (OSF) is a common premalignant condition of the mouth with areca nut chewing habit in the Asian subcontinent. It is characterized by restricted mouth opening, tongue protrusion and cheek flexibility. Though there are many histological studies of OSF reporting fibrosis and hyalinization in the sub-epithelium, there is a paucity of information related to the association of fibrosis and mouth opening (MO) and muscle changes in this condition. The present study was undertaken to study the association between mouth opening and fibrosis ; and to study the degree of alterations involving muscle fibers as the disease progresses. However, the statistical analysis showed that there is no correlation between stage of mouth opening and grading of fibrosis as suggested by the insignificant ‘p’ value.