Oral mucosal lesions in smokeless tobacco users.

Abstract

ticed throughout the world include tobacco chewing and snuff dipping. Tobacco chew ing is the practice of placing a portion of leaf, plug, cake, or thread twines of to bacco between the cheek and gingiva after it has been chewed. Snuff dipping involves placing a pinch of powdered or carefully cut tobacco between the cheek or lip and gingiva or beneath the tongue.' Both chew ing and dipping give rise to clinical changes of the oral mucosa; periodontal lesions have also been described. In Scandinavian countries, smokeless tobacco is enjoyed mostly in the form of snuff; the use of chewing tobacco is rare. Snuff-induced oral mucosal changes are characterized by a white, folded, wrin kled surface, often with a pattern of deli cate white striae. †? @ The lesions are some times slightly elevated and diffusely demarcated from the surrounding normal mucosa (Fig. I). They are usually whitish,