INTERCESSION IN THE MANAGEMENT OF ORAL LICHEN PLANUS: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW OF THE CURRENT AND NOVEL PHARMACOLOGICAL THERAPIES

Abstract

Introduction: Oral Lichen Planus (OLP) is a chronic inflammatory, T-cell-mediated autoimmune oral mucosal disease with unconfirmed origin and cause. The medical management of OLP is fraught with challenges.

Aim: The aim was to assess the efficiency of pharmacological interventions used in medical management of OLP.

 Materials and Methods: The databases (January 2000 to August 2020):- Cochrane Oral Health Group Trials Register, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL),MEDLINE and EMBASE. All Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) for the pharmacological management of OLP which compared active treatment with placebo or between active treatments were considered in this systematic review. Participants of age older than 18 years, gender or race suffering from OLP, and confirmed histopathology have been included. Interventions of all types, including topical medication or systemic drugs of variable dosage, duration & frequency of delivery have been considered. The selected trials were perused by review authors and the data for all the trials were synthesized using specifically designed data extraction form.

Results: A total of 17 RCTs were selected in this systematic review on pharmacological management of OLP. The superiority of any particular management protocol could not be discerned.

Conclusion: The further trials on the management of OLP using pharmacological derivatives demand a larger scale with multiple population sets of various ethnicity, age and gender. Also, the parameters need a more acute standardization for the scrutiny collective.