Oral Submucous Fibrosis a Distressing Disease with Malignant Potential

In their review, Pillai et al1 concluded that the etiology is unknown but is probably multifactorial. Main contributing factor as thought by Jayanthi et al2, is the use of pan which typically consists of areca nut, tobacco and crude lime wrapped in betel leaf. Experimentally, an alkaloid component of the areca nut, “Arecoline” can induce fi broblast proliferation and collagen synthesis and may penetrate the oral mucosa to cause progressive cross linking of collagen Fibres 3,4. Tobacco chewing and smoking are not considered to play a role in the development of this disease. In this study we tried to analyze various clinico pathological aspect of the oral submucous fi brosis including the natural course of the disease.