Symptoms of leukoplakia of the oral mucosa

Leukoplakia usually localized in the mucosa of the cheek , mainly at the corners of the mouth, on the lower lip , at least in the language ( on the back or side of the surface) , alveolar bone , in the floor of the mouth . The clinical picture of the disease is heterogeneous , and therefore should be distinguished flat , warty , and erosive leukoplakia Tappeiner .
The clinical picture of leukoplakia depends not only on the form of the disease and the factors causing it , but also on the localization. For leukoplakia from its inception until the malignancy can be divided into several stages. The process usually begins with step predleykoplakicheskoy , characterized by inflammation of the small limited portion of the mucosa. After that, it happens very quickly even actinic . Later in the progression of the lesion process starts rise above the surrounding normal mucosa ( verrucous leukoplakia ) . In this period of illness to replace hyperplastic come metaplastic changes in connection with which it is in this form is often a malignancy . Erosive form has the greatest potential malignancy . Therefore, all clinical forms of leukoplakia is a single stage of the pathological process .

All forms of leukoplakia potentially ozlokachestvlyatsya , with the greatest frequency of malignancy observed in the localization process in the language .
Leukoplakia in some patients there may be years or even decades without malignancy , while others pretty quickly transformed into cancer. Duration leukoplakia flow until its eventual transformation into cancer is very individual and depends primarily on the shape of leukoplakia as the greatest potential malignancy have warty and erosive its shape.
Clinical symptoms by which to judge the beginning malignancy leukoplakia, depend on the form of the disease. Signs indicating malignancy flat leukoplakia are erozirovanie sudden appearance and seal at the base of the hearth leukoplakia . Especially suspicious appearance seals are not considered under the whole portion of keratinization , but only under one of its sides .
Clinical signs of malignancy erosive leukoplakia : the emergence of the seal at the base erosion , bleeding erosive surface when traumatizing , ulceration , education papillary growths on the surface erosion or rapid increase in its size.
However, in the early stages of malignancy , all these symptoms may be absent.
In this connection it is perhaps appropriate to earlier removal of lesions and verrucous leukoplakia erosive followed by histological examination .