Sally Abd ElMeniem ElHaddad

Title: Clinical evaluation of a new honey preparation for the treatment of atrophic/erosive oral lichen planus: A randomized, blind, controlled, parallel clinical trial

Abstract:

Atrophic/Erosive oral lichen planus (OLP) is an oral chronic inflammatory disorder with chronic and painful ulceration of the oral mucous membrane that may lead to secondary infection and development of squamous cell carcinoma. It has an immunological etiology. It affects approximately 0.5 to 2.6% of adult population, mainly white women aged 30 to 60 years. There is no curative treatment for OLP yet. Therapy is aimed at alleviation of the symptoms because atrophic/ erosive OLP treatment is often unsatisfactory and disappointing where the lesions tend to relapse after cessation of the therapy making long-term therapy often a necessity.

A wide spectrum of treatment modalities is available, ranging from topical corticosteroids, which is often the mainstay in the treatment of symptomatic OLP with their unavoidable side effects, to laser ablation of the lesion with unsatisfied long-term success.

Objectives: The aim of this clinical study was to evaluate the clinical efficacy of an innovative preparation; honey in orabase (50%) paste for the treatment of atrophic/ erosive OLP as compared with orabase treatment only.

Materials and Methods: A randomized blind controlled parallel trial was designed to compare the efficacy of the new honey preparation as a topical drug for treatment of atrophic/erosive OLP. 

Forty patients were divided into two groups, twenty of them were provided with 30 gm tube of the study drug, honey in orabase (50%) paste (Gp I), and the other twenty patients were provided with orabase paste alone (Gp II). Pain and severity of the lesion scores were recorded at baseline and during the follow up period at the 2^nd, 4^th week and 2^nd and 4^th month of treatment.

Results: Pain score diminished dramatically in all patients at the 2^nd week and till the last follow up period at the 4^th month for Gp I, while there was no response till the 4^th week for Gp II. There was a great clinical resolution of OLP lesions for Gp I in terms of lesion score reduction at the 4^th week of treatment, but there was no clinical response for Gp II at the same follow up period with a statistically significant difference between the two groups. We shifted Gp II patients after the 4^th week to use honey in orabase (50%), and then they showed a great improvement in both pain and lesion reduction scores.

Conclusion: Our findings suggest experimental evidence for effectiveness of a natural remedy- honey preparation, with no side effects over a long-term usage in the treatment of atrophic/ erosive OLP. It could represent a likely alternative to topical steroids or immunosuppressive agents in managing atrophic/ erosive OLP. The promising results give hope in treating atrophic/ erosive OLP with avoidance of inevitable complications of steroids or immunosuppressive agents and suggest further research with a larger sample size.

Audience Take Away:

• The audience will know a new treatment modality for controlling oral premalignant lesions
• They can manage their patients in a safer way
• The results will encourage the audiences for more research trials
• It is an innovative safe drug to be used in other oral lesions

Biography:

Dr. Sally studied Dentistry and had her BDS in 1994, Tanta University, Egypt. MSc was got in 2005 in Periodontology and Oral Medicine. He joined as Oral Medicine Specialist In King Saud University in 2005, where he started his research trials with honey preparation. Now, he is assist Prof. Periodontology and Oral Medicine, and Head of Research Unit at College of Dentistry, Dar-AlUloom Universiy