Description

Oral cavity is a mirror of general health. Because of its anatomic location it is open to external environment which makes it prone to various diseases. It has also been abused by different types of habits such as smoking, quid chewing, snuffs dipping. The dentist being the first one to note such changes are in a position to diagnose and differentiate between various lesions and also to determine the etiologic factors involved. Chewer's mucosa is defined as a condition of oral mucosa where because of the direct action of quid or due to the traumatic effect of chewing or both there is a tendency of desquamation of oral epithelium with detached tags of tissue and the underlying mucosa assumes a wrinkled appearance with yellow encrustations. Although it is not considered a premalignant lesion is considered to be a precursor of Oral submucous fibrosis. Thus the present study was conducted to asses and compare various quid chewing habits and their association with Chewer's mucosa lesion.