AWARD. In an interdisciplinary collaboration between medicine and odontology, researchers were able to analyze and present data collected over the last twenty years at both the Oral Medicine and Pathology section and the Endocrinology section. The result is the largest epidemiological study of the relationship between OLP and thyroid disease, and the article has now been recognized with an award by a leading journal in oral medicine.
The article is part of Jairo Robledo Sierra’s doctoral thesis. The award is called the Millard Award, a prize awarded by the prominent medical journal OOOO (Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine, Oral Pathology, Oral Radiology), which is associated with the American Association of Oral Medicine.
“This feels really important! That our article was named the best article between July 2015 and June 2016 shows that our research team produces good quality research and that we stand up well to the competition. To also receive the award at the banquet of the next meeting of the American Association of Oral Medicine feels like a great honor,” says Jairo Robledo Sierra, who graduated a year ago with Mats Jontell as his supervisor.
The article is about one of the most common mucous membrane changes in the mouth, oral lichen planus (OLP), which patients often experience as debilitating. In a previous article, the research group demonstrated a strong relationship between the medication levothyroxine (Levaxin) and the prevalence of oral lichen planus (OLP). In the latest article, the research group examines the relationship between the type of thyroid disease and OLP, and they compare this with the general population. The article stands out because the patient population is so large, 1611 patients and 1615 controls, which is fairly unique in oral medicine.
“To collect such a large data set would not have been possible without the close cooperation we have had between our section and the Endocrinology section at the Sahlgrenska Academy’s Institute of Medicine.”
The study found that eleven percent of patients with OLP are affected at the same time by thyroid disease, primarily autoimmune hypothyroidism, compared with 2.5 percent in the general population. Three out of four of the patients with OLP suffered from thyroid disease before the onset of OLP.
“This shows that some form of immunological mechanism is involved in thyroid disease, which can then be important in the development of OLP,” Jairo concludes.
The oral cavity has traditionally been regarded as a separate entity from the rest of the body. This view is slowly beginning to change and more people realize that many diseases of the oral cavity can be closely linked to other medical conditions in the body.
“There is a great need for well-designed and well-conducted studies looking at the link between oral and systemic illness before a real paradigm shift occurs. This is why it is important to establish and maintain continued cooperation between dental care and medical care,” says Jairo. “Most exciting about this type of collaboration is that we managed to rally our forces and work towards the same goal, which resulted in such a large data set. This also enabled us to look at the material from many different perspectives by sharing our experiences and knowledge and using them to understand relationships and draw conclusions.”
Read the article Clinical characteristics of patients with concomitant oral lichen planus and thyroid disease
