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Lip impressions: a new method for monitoring morphological changes in orofacial granulomatosis
Author(s) -
Chiandussi S,
Tappuni AR,
Watson TF,
White A,
Escudier MP,
Sanderson JD,
Challacombe SJ
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
oral diseases
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.953
H-Index - 87
eISSN - 1601-0825
pISSN - 1354-523X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1601-0825.2006.01255.x
Subject(s) - medicine , lower lip , dentistry , reproducibility , orthodontics , dermatology , surgery , statistics , mathematics
Aim: To develop and evaluate an objective method for assessing lip size and treatment‐related morphological changes in orofacial granulomatosis (OFG) patients. Materials and methods: Patients with swollen lips because of OFG ( n = 21) were enrolled. A light‐body polyvinylsiloxane material was used to take lip impressions before and after treatment ( n = 10), or during treatment ( n = 11). Plaster models were cast from the impressions and the lips were measured using callipers. The intra‐examiner and inter‐examiner reproducibility of the technique were assessed. Results: OFG patients had significantly larger lips than controls ( P < 0.0001). The coefficient of variation on repeated measurements of the same impression was 1.6% and for duplicate impressions was 2.6%. Significant reduction in lip size was shown in all 10 patients after diet restriction ( P < 0.002). Seven of 11 patients whose impressions were taken at least 3 months after the initiation of cinnamon‐ and benzoate‐free diet also showed reduction in lip size during follow up ( P < 0.002). Conclusions: Serial lip impressions appear to be reliable for routine quantification of morphological changes of the lips in OFG patients. We present a new reproducible and sensitive method for assessing changes in lip size in response to treatment in OFG.