Oral lichen planus in children: an italian case series with literature review

Objectives. Oral lichen planus is a chronic mucous inflammatory disease. The prevalence in adults ranges between 0.5% and 2%, whereas children are involved just in 0.03% of cases. The purpose of this paper is to review the current literature and to present six Italian cases of Oral Lichen Planus in children (OLPc). Methods. We reported the data about a retrospective study on 6 cases of oral lichen planus in children. A detailed history was retrieved from clinical notes of each patient. Patients younger than 18 years old were enrolled in the study. All of them had the OLP diagnosis confirmed by clinical findings, history, and histopathology. Results. The family history for lichen planus was negative in all patients, the mean age was 11 years (range 6-14); there was no cutaneous involvement, whereas 2 patients had concomitant autoimmune diseases. Topical corticosteroids was the only treatment used in 66.67% of patients with good response in a mean time of 4.75 weeks. Conclusions. The rarity of OLPc may be due to the lack of symptoms that prevents the patient or his family from noticing the presence of the condition, but also to misdiagnosis of the dentist or the paediatrician. Thus, though LP in children is uncommon and oral mucosal involvement extremely rare, clinicians should be aware of its existence and management, and this diagnosis should be taken into account in children presenting oral white lesions.