Choubarga Naik1 , Bimal Krishna Panda2 , Anisha Avijeeta3 , Barnanshu Pattnaik4 , Subha Soumya Dany5 , Sujata Panda6 , Akriti Agrawal7 , Alok Ranjan Sasmal8
BACKGROUND Oral submucous fibrosis (OSMF) is the most common precancerous lesion, prevalent mostly in South East Asia. The habit of betel nut or gutkha chewing is the main cause for this. There is a direct association between gutkha chewing habit and development of OSMF, the reason being exaggerated forces on the masseter muscle due to vigorous chewing for prolonged period of time. So, the present study was done to evaluate the thickness of masseter muscle in OSMF patients. METHODS A total of 25 subjects were included in the study from January 2015 to December 2017. 25 OSMF patients belonging to the age group of 25-50 years who attended the outpatient department of Veer Surendra Sai Medical College and Hospital, Burla, with masseteric hypertrophy and betelnut or gutkha chewing habit for more than 5 years, were included in the study. The computed tomography (CT) scans were obtained using Siemens Somatom Sensation 4-slice CT scanner. During the scanning period, the patients were asked to keep their mouth gently closed and relaxed. Axial sections of the CT scans were assessed for masseter muscles. The thickness of the muscle was calculated using image-analysing software and the measurements made were in millimeter (mm). Tabulation was done and statistical analysis was done using Mann-Whitney U test. RESULTS The thickness of masseter muscle of right side was found to be more than the left side in all patients except for one patient and the outcome was statistically significant with one tailed p value < 0.01. CONCLUSIONS The duration and frequency of the habit were found to be directly proportional to masseter muscle thickness and also with the clinical progression of the disease. Similarly, we also concluded from our study that there exists an association of masseter muscle hypertrophy with OSMF, and CT scan measurements of masseter muscle thickness were found to be statistically significant.
