Shital Patel1*, Deval Mehta2, Taher Rupawala3, Nimesh Patel4, Sanjay Makwana5 and Kruna Bhimani5
1Reader, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, AMC Dental College and Hospital, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India
2Dean, Professor and HOD, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, College of Dental Science and Research Center, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India
3Ex-Post Graduate Student, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, AMC Dental College and Hospital, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India
4Senior Lecturer, Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology, Goenka Research Institute of Dental Sciences, Gujarat University, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India
5Post-Graduate Student, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, AMC Dental College and Hospital, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India
*Corresponding Author: Shital Patel, Reader, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, AMC Dental College and Hospital, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India.
Received: October 07, 2020; Published: October 28, 2020
Oral Submucous Fibrosis is a premalignant condition affecting a considerable population around the world. The surge in the use of arecanut and tobacco products has led to monumental rise in young patients complaining of trismus and inability to eat. Although, the condition can be effectively managed through surgery followed by physiotherapy, its incessant subclinical progression often restores the intraoral fibrosis once physiotherapy is discontinued, most commonly due to pain. In this respect, it was intriguing to notice many such patients eliciting an elongated styloid process which may be consequent to activation of Transforming Growth Factor -beta due to chronic trauma or inflammation. This growth factor is also involved in marked deposition of collagen forming intraoral fibrous bands. Hence, if a definite association can be delineated between the two conditions, through radiographic examination on an orthopantomogram, clinicians can be alerted to diagnose an elongated styloid process whenever a case of oral submucous fibrosis presents in the clinical practice. This simple yet significant protocol shall eliminate a prominent cause of pain during mouth opening exercises thus making the chances of treatment failure negligible.
Keywords: Oral Submucous Fibrosis (OSF); Elongated Styloid Process (ESP); Transforming Growth Factor -Beta (TGF-β); Orthopantomogram (OPG)
Citation: Shital Patel., et al. “Oral Submucous Fibrosis and Elongated Styloid Process - Do they have an Alarming Inter-Connection??". Acta Scientific Otolaryngology 2.11 (2020): 39-41.
Copyright: © 2020 Shital Patel., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.