Comparison of the effectiveness of mouthwash containing betamethasone with dexamethasone in the improvement of oral lichen planus lesions

Abstract

Objective: Oral lichen planus has a high prevalence and is one of the pre-malignant conditions. In scientific sources, the use of topical corticosteroids is mentioned as the first line of treatment for these lesions, but there is not enough evidence available regarding the effectiveness of each corticosteroid, and most studies have compared corticosteroids with other drug families; Therefore, the aim of this study is to compare the effectiveness of betamethasone mouthwash with dexamethasone mouthwash in improving the lesions of oral lichen planus.

Methods: In this double-blind randomized clinical trial study, 40 patients with oral lichen planus were selected from the patients referred to the Department of Oral, Maxillofacial and Oral Diseases of Tabriz Faculty of Dentistry. To confirm the diagnosis, a tissue biopsy was taken. Patients were randomly divided into 2 groups of 20 people. For 6 weeks, one group received betamethasone mouthwash and one group received dexamethasone mouthwash. The size of the largest lesion in the mouth was measured and scored once before the treatment and again 6 weeks after the start of the treatment based on the Thongprasom criterion. To determine the effectiveness of mouthwashes, paired sample t-test was used and to compare the effectiveness of mouthwashes, analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used. The significance level was considered 0.05 in all tests. All analyzes were done in spss27 software.

Results: Statistical analysis showed that in both groups, there was a statistically significant difference between the average size of the lesions before and after the intervention. (P<0.001) Therefore, it can be said that the intervention was effective in both groups. After adjusting the effect of the confounding variable (the size of the lesions before the intervention), the comparison of the two groups showed that the difference between the two interventions were not statistically significant. (P=0.919) Conclusion: Both betamethasone and dexamethasone mouthwashes can be effective in healing the lesions of oral lichen planus, but there is no difference between the two mouthwashes in terms of effectiveness.