Leukoplakia: Symptoms, Causes, Treatment, Cost, and Side Effects

Leukoplakia is a disease that affects the inside of your mouth. White, thickened patches appear on the inside of the cheeks, on the gums, on top of the tongue and sometimes at the bottom of your mouth. The white patches are like a second thick layer of regional skin that cannot be scraped off.

Since leukoplakia occurs on the inside of your mouth, you may notice it while brushing your teeth. Most people consider it gone in a few days, while to some it may even go unnoticed because there is usually no pain associated with the disease.

However, some of the leukoplakia symptoms are as follows:

• White, yellow-greyish patches on the sides of the cheeks, tongue, gums or below the tongue
• Upon touching, the patchy area feels flat and rough
• Some of the areas of the patches may feel thick while some even
• Lesions in red colour and the skin may feel raised. In such cases, this may also be a precancerous symptom.

Doctors are still on the road to finding a single cause of leukoplakia. However, chronic irritation associated with long-term tobacco use had been linked with the disease. People who consume tobacco, when smoked, chewed or ingested in other forms, are at risk of developing this disease. Smokeless tobacco users eventually develop leukoplakia, as they tend to hold the tobacco at the sides of their cheeks or below their tongue.

Some of the other causes that have developed leukoplakia are:

• Poorly fixed braces or other dental fixtures
• Sharp teeth as a result of being broken and cutting the tongue
• Alcohol use for a long time

Once developed, leukoplakia requires advanced medical attention. Consult with your dentist to be sure whether it is in fact leukoplakia. If yes, then consult with a doctor for determining the course of treatment. If your condition is less severe, it will take a few weeks to recover. However, once healed or cured, the person has to cut down on smoking and drinking to prevent it from developing again in future.

Some leukoplakia can overall be prevented by cutting down your smoking tobacco, chewing any form of nicotine agents or drinking alcohol. If you continue to do so in small amounts, consult with your dentist regularly. Leukoplakia may develop further to show precancerous symptoms, so regular check-ups are crucial. Mouth cancers are usually painless before the advanced stages of cancer cell development, so it is best to keep your doctor updated on your progress reports at daily intervals.

A regular check-up with the doctor

Have a healthy diet with vitamin C and green vegetables daily. Foods high in beta-carotene like carrots and pumpkin are very beneficialnMaintain oral hygiene - which means brushing twice daily, flossing and using a mouthwashnFollow all the routines that the doctor recommends

Avoid alcohol at all costs. Preventing any amount of alcohol to run through your blood system will speed up the recovery time.

Consumption of tobacco is a big no-no. Nicotine is the root of all tobacco supplies. Be it chewing or smoking, using any kind of tobacco products should be avoided by patients suffering from leukoplakia.

Patients should also avoid rich and spicy, full of red chilli food. This may aggravate the white patches with a burning sensation and pose further problems.

Your doctor will generally assign an oral exam to diagnose leukoplakia. During an oral exam, your healthcare provider can confirm if the patches are in fact leukoplakia or some other problems. Leukoplakia can often be mistaken for oral thrush commonly.

With similar-looking symptoms as leukoplakia, oral thrush is a yeast infection that affects the inside of the mouth. The white patches caused by a thrush are usually much softer than leukoplakia patches as they may bleed more easily. On the other hand, oral thrush patches can be wiped off, unlike white patches caused by leukoplakia.

The doctor may also go with other tests and routine checkups to confirm the cause of your spots. If a patch looks suspicious, the doctor may advise you to get a biopsy done. To do a biopsy, a small piece of tissue is removed from one or more of your patches. This tissue sample is then preserved and sent to a pathologist for diagnosis to check for precancerous or cancerous cells.

After an oral test, if leukoplakia is confirmed, the doctor may suggest further tests to check if there are any early signs of cancer:

• Oral brush biopsy: A small, spinning brush is a tool involved in this test. A small tissue is collected from the lesion using this tool. This test may not prove to be the best for diagnosis and further treatment, but your doctor may suggest the same according to need.
• Excisional biopsy: This kind of biopsy usually involves removing a small tissue from the leukoplakia patch. The entire patch can be removed if its size is small. An excisional biopsy is considered to be a more comprehensive test and gives better, definitive results.

If the test result comes out as positive for cancer, you may not need further treatment if the doctor had taken out the complete patch during the test. However, if there are multiple patches or a very large one, other doctors may be referred for further treatment.

• By having a closer look inside your mouth, you may be able to detect if you have developed a similar condition like leukoplakia.
• Although you cannot say it is the disease, once white patches are noticed, the doctor should be called upon immediately.
• While brushing or flossing your teeth, you may notice white patches inside your mouth. However, to determine whether it is truly caused by leukoplakia, you have to visit the doctor and undergo tests to be sure.
• Leukoplakia can often be confused with diseases of similar symptoms like oral thrush.

• Diet rich in vitamins: Under every circumstance, having a balanced diet which includes leafy greens, proteins, healthy fats like Omega 3 and a bunch of other stuff is important. Eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables will speed up the healing process.
• Addictives: Tobacco and alcohol are close to poison for people suffering from leukoplakia or those who have just undergone treatment. Stopping its consumption would be the way to go, however, if you plan on smoking, drinking or chewing tobacco once in a while, make sure your doctor approves of it, given the severity of your situation.
• Retinoids: This chemical compound is nothing but Vitamin A. Generally used for acne issues, taking vitamin A in retinoids orally would help a great deal.
• Isotretinoin: If your leukoplakia is cancerous, isotretinoin supplements are supposedly more beneficial for people with leukoplakia.

Mild occurrences of leukoplakia are usually harmless with no pain. However, more serious cases of prolonged recurrences of leukoplakia may be cancerous and will require intensive and advanced treatment and care.

• If your body has low dietary levels of vitamin C, fibre and other essential elements like vitamin A, then you are at an increased risk of getting affected by leukoplakia. So including these vitamins in your diet is crucial.
• Vegetables like beets and carrots are loaded with beta-carotene. Other fiber and vitamin-rich fruits and vegetables can be included twice a day in the meals. They are also rich in antioxidants which help with the healing process.
• Protein can be consumed like fish, eggs and poultry. If you suffer from pain, make sure the meat is fall-off-the-bone tender.
• Doctors also encourage leukoplakia patients to drink plenty of fluids throughout the day, like water and coconut water.

If you are someone who likes spicy foods, it is best to avoid chilli-based foods until you have completely recovered.Abstain from alcohol completely.

You should also stay away from any nicotine-based products. They will only aggravate your condition.

Treatment for leukoplakia usually involves identifying the root cause of the problem and then eradicating it. Since the disease can be caused by multiple reasons, the cause should be identified first with the help of tests and diagnosis.

For example, if it is figured out that the cause of leukoplakia in a patient is due to a broken or sharp tooth, the tooth will be smoothened. If dental fixtures are badly placed, the fixture will be placed properly. If the condition is caused by smoking, the doctor will suggest you stay away from chewing or smoking tobacco After the cause is corrected or fixed, the symptoms of leukoplakia usually go away in a week or two.

However, if the symptoms refuse to go away after a few weeks of removing the cause of the disease, the patches or lesions may have to be removed surgically.

The doctors at Pristyn Care can help you understand the necessary course of action.

After diagnosis, if the doctor deems fit, you may have to undergo advanced treatment for healing the lesion. Hairy leukoplakia, for instance, requires antiviral medication along with other treatment options for complete healing.

Hairy leukoplakia is commonly known to be caused by the Epstein-Barr virus. Topical medications or antiviral ones with components like Acyclovir and ganciclovir may help with the virus shedding but do not completely eradicate the patches.

• Brushing your teeth twice daily combined with flossing should be part of your oral health routine
• Ensuring that proper medications as prescribed are taken on time
• Abstaining from smoking or any kinds of tobacco items
• Topical medications to shed off the white patches

There are quite a few surgical options for treating oral leukoplakia that include:

Conventional cold scalpel excision: A scalpel is a commonly used instrument in surgeries. Scalpel is a bladed and sharp surgical instrument, often used in surgeries to make cuts in the body. In this type of surgery, a cold scalpel is used to cut off the lesion.

Cryosurgery: Cryosurgery is a surgical method that uses a cold liquid in an instrument called a cryoprobe. This device is used to freeze and destroy any abnormal tissue of the body. A cryoprobe is typically cooled with substances such as liquid nitrogen, nitrous oxide in liquid form and compressed argon gas.

Laser excision or laser vaporization: This surgical procedure uses the cutting power of a laser beam. A laser beam allows the surgical doctor to make bloodless cuts in tissue and by doing so, he can remove a surface lesion, in this case, the white patch caused by leukoplakia.

Photodynamic therapy: Abbreviated as PDT, this surgical method is administered with the use of a drug that is activated by light. It is called a photosensitizer or photosensitizing agent that aids in destroying cancer cells.

There is no one answer for this. The cost of leukoplakia treatment and surgical procedures in India may heavily depend on the severity of the condition and which state or city he is willing to get his treatment from. However, with the doctor’s visit fee that can be up to Rs. 2000, the price of an excision surgery for leukoplakia can be around 20,000-50,000. If you want to find more information and details on the surgeries, you can directly come to the Pristyn Care website and find out every single detail about leukoplakia surgery and its expenses. On the Pristyn Care website, you can also find the names of some of the finest dental surgeons in the country.

If your condition is not severe and is treatable through abstaining from smoking or staying away from the causes that made the disease occur in the first place, your healing time should not be more than a couple of weeks. Within that time, you will start seeing effective signs and symptoms of the lesions slowing healing.

However, with cancerous treatments of leukoplakia and if you have to undergo surgery, it may take a few more weeks than that, depending on how fast you are coping with the medications.

You can never be sure of the fact that your condition will not pose a problem in the future as well, especially if you stop caring about the things to avoid like smoking and drinking . In fact, after healing, if the patient goes through smoking or chewing tobacco products, he may see an occurrence. Based on this, doctors may have to start another treatment. However, if precautions are maintained, there is a high chance that you may never develop this disease in future.

• Smoking and drinking alcohol should be kept at bare minimum consumption, or better even, avoided.
• Avoid spicy weeks or lay off them until you are fully healed. Your mouth will likely be sore.
• Eat antioxidant-rich fruit and vegetables daily.
• Warm milk or soup may help soothe the area.
• Ensure that medications are taken on time
• Regular follow-ups after surgery, at least for the first few weeks.

Under advanced cases only will the doctor suggest surgery and medications. Make sure to let the doctor know if you are allergic to any components of the medication so that he can suggest an alternative. Most people tend to spring back to smoking after being healed. This may bring back the disease and surgery may have to be done again. Repeated surgery for the same cause may hurt the tooth and gums.

Leukoplakia surgeries and treatment procedures are not life-threatening and can easily be prevented or treated at the right time. If your doctor suggests getting surgery is the right course of action for you, you should get one immediately to avoid any further delay in treatment.