The oral effects of Crohn's disease:

Description of nine cases

Abstract

Crohn's disease (MC) is a chronic inflammatory granulomatous disease whose effects on the mouth and jaws are still underestimated during clinical examination. This article describes the lesions and their diagnostic and therapeutic management in nine patients with an average age of 23 years presenting with symptoms of disease in the oral cavity due to or leading to a previously diagnosed MC. The patients were treated between 2008 and 2015. MC in our panel primarily manifested as ulcerative lesions of the vestibular folds and erythematous perioral oedema. The endobuccal biopsies gave clear evidence of MC in almost half of the patients, even before any symptomatology or examination of the digestive tract, with a diagnostic delay of 14 months on average. Immunomodulatory treatment was used exclusively or concomitantly in 89% of patients. Early diagnosis should allow more rapid application of specific treatment, which is often necessary to limit the extent of lesions and improve quality of life.