Abstract
To evaluate the buccal mucosa in healthy and oral submucous fibrosis (OSF) subjects by ultrasound and to compare these findings with the clinical and histopathological findings.
A 7.5-9-MHz real B-mode ultrasound scanner was used to image the buccal mucosa in 10 healthy subjects (group I: control) and 30 patients divided into three clinical stages (group II: stage I OSF; group III: stage II OSF; group IV: stage III OSF) comprising 10 patients per group.
Significant correlations were found among the various groups, with healthy subjects displaying isoechogenicity (100 %), group II displaying hypoechogenicity (90 %), group III displaying moderate echogenicity (90 %), and group IV displaying hyperechogenicity (100 %) corresponding to the acoustic behavior and fibrotic composition of the mucosa (p < 0.001).
These results suggest that ultrasonography can be regarded as a noninvasive imaging tool for evaluating the collagenous alterations in the oral mucosa.