It has been proposed that in some patients with oral lichen planus (OLP), salivary gland function is affected. A study by Colquhoun, et al compared xerostomia scores of subjects with OLP to the scores of healthy matched controls. The study subjects were sent a questionnaire for dry mouth called The Xerostomia Inventory. Of the 464 individuals invited to participate in the investigation, 246 who completed the questionnaires were eligible for data analysis. The study found that the difference between patients with OLP and controls for all xerostomia questions was statistically significant. The mean xerostomia score for the OLP group was 20.4, compared to a mean score of 14.7 for control subjects. The study concludes that there appears to be an association between OLP and persistently dry mouth.
(Source: Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine, Oral Pathology, Oral Radiology, and Endodontology, Vol. 98, No. 1, July 2004)
