Amit Singh and Vivek Narayan*
Lichen planus is a chronic inflammatory disease that affects the skin and the mucus membrane. Oral lichen planus (OLP), the mucosal counterpart of cutaneous lichen planus, presents frequently in the fourth decade of life and affects women more than men in a ratio of 1.4:1. Different types of oral lichen planus are present and the present study is performed to find the prevalence of different types of oral lichen planus. This is a retrospective study and the data is acquired from the patient archives of the department of Oral Medicine and Radiology. A total of 218 case histories were reviewed. Cross verification of data was done by photographic verification. Internal and external validity were verified. The required patient details were entered in the excel sheet. The data is transferred to SPSS for statistical analysis. Chi square test was used to find out association between different variables. The reticular type of oral lichen planus was found to be more prevalent in females (31.19 %) and in the 41 - 60 age group (25.23 %). This was followed by the erosive type of oral lichen planus which was 22.94 % in males and 14.22 % in females. It was found that the reticular type of oral lichen planus was the most common type and understanding the pathogenesis of oral lichen planus is paramount and also attempt should be made to understand the reason why these types of oral lichen planus are common in a particular gender and age group.
