CLINICAL DISCUSSION: Oral submucous fibrosis: an etiological dilemma
Aanchal Sharma, Rajesh Kumar, Navdeep Johar and Husain Sabir
Oral Submucous Fibrosis (OSF), is a well-recognized, oral potentially malignant disorder predominantly affecting the South-Asian countries. OSF causes unique generalized fibrosis of the submucosal oral soft tissues, resulting in marked rigidity of the oral mucosa leading to progressive inability to open the mouth, rigidity of lips and difficulty in protruding the tongue. In this review, e have discussed the multifactorial etiology of this potentially malignant disorder, including Chillies, Nutritional Deficiencies, Inducible nitric oxide synthesis (iNOS), genetic and immunological predisposition; and most importantly the role of areca nut and the effect of copper content in it.
Keywords: Oral Submucous Fibrosis (OSF), etiology, multifactorial, Areca Nut, Copper