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Revista Portuguesa de Estomatologia,
Medicina Dentária e Cirurgia Maxilofacial

rev port estomatol med dent cir maxilofac. 2018;59(1):10-17

Original research

Characterization of recurrent aphthous stomatitis
in a young population

Maria João Oliveira, Filipe Coimbra, Pedro Mesquita, João Carvalho, Otília Pereira-Lopes*

Faculty of Dental Medicine, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Aim: To characterize recurrent aphthous stomatitis in a young population and investigate
Received 17 August 2017 the association between these lesions and predisposing factors, as well as potential modi-
Accepted 14 June 2018 fications in children’s daily routines.
Available online 28 June 2018 Methods: The data was collected by delivering a questionnaire to students attending S. Mi-
guel Primary School, in Vizela, as well as to their parents/guardians. A literature review was
Keywords: conducted, using scientific databases such as PubMed, Cochrane and the Virtual Library of
Aphthae the University of Porto.
Aphthous Results: A common prevalence of aphthous ulcers was found in 53.0% of the sample. Most
Oral medicine participants reported a number of lesions between 1 and 5, located in the jugal/labial mu-
Recurrence cosa, healing within 4 to 7 days. About 46.4% of the participants had a family history of this
Stomatitis disease, mainly on the mother’s side. About 29.6% of the students associated aphthae with
Young traumatic events in the oral mucosa, while 9.8% associated them with stress. A significant
association was found only between the frequency of aphthae and gastrointestinal disor-
ders, and not with other factors. A significant use of topical medications was detected, and
the pharmacist was the most consulted healthcare professional.
Conclusion: This study’s findings were in line with previous data on the clinical characteris-
tics of aphthae and confirm the negative impacts of this disease on children’s quality of life,
reporting its association with gastrointestinal disorders. (Rev Port Estomatol Med Dent Cir
Maxilofac. 2018;59(1):10-17)
© 2018 Sociedade Portuguesa de Estomatologia e Medicina Dentária.
Publicado por SPEMD. Este é um artigo Open Access sob uma licença CC BY -NC -ND
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by -nc -nd/4.0/).

* Corresponding author.
Correio eletrónico: tilialopes@gmail.com (Otília Pereira-Lopes).
http://doi.org/10.24873/j.rpemd.2018.06.222
1646-2890/© 2017 Sociedade Portuguesa de Estomatologia e Medicina Dentária. Published by SPEMD.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).