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Obiettivi. Il fumo di sigaretta, seconda causa di morte nel mondo, e l’abuso di alcol, una delle principali cause di mortalità e morbilità, costituiscono importanti fattori di rischio per le patologie del cavo orale. Scopo di questo lavoro è presentare gli effetti del fumo di sigaretta e dell’abuso di alcol sulla salute orale. Sono inoltre illustrate le modalità di realizzazione di interventi di cessazione dell’abitudine al fumo nell’ambito dell’attività professionale dell’odontoiatra e dell’igienista dentale. Materiali e metodi. Attraverso la banca dati Medline/Pubmed sono stati selezionati i lavori originali, le revisioni della letteratura e le linee guida in lingua inglese e in italiano pubblicati sull’argomento dal 2006 al primo trimestre del 2013. Altre fonti sono state scelte dai riferimenti bibliografici selezionati. Risultati e conclusioni. Il fumo rappresenta il più importante fattore di rischio per il carcinoma a cellule squamose della mucosa orale e per le lesioni potenzialmente maligne; l’abuso di alcol, associato al fumo, aumenta in modo sinergico il rischio di insorgenza del carcinoma orale. Il fumo, inoltre, dopo la placca batterica, è il secondo fattore di rischio per l’insorgenza e la progressione della parodontite cronica, mentre ulteriori studi sono necessari per stabilire un analogo ruolo per il consumo di alcol. L’approccio delle “5 A” rappresenta una modalità di intervento efficace che i componenti del team odontoiatrico possono attuare con tutti i pazienti fumatori. I pazienti impegnati in tentativi di cessazione del fumo dovrebbero far ricorso alla terapia sostitutiva nicotinica, o all’assunzione di bupropione a rilascio controllato o di vareniclina, per incrementare significativamente le probabilità di successo del tentativo di cessazione. Objectives. Cigarette smoking, the second cause of death worldwide, and alcohol abuse, a leading cause of mortality and morbidity, are major risk factors for oral diseases. The aim of this paper is to present the effects of cigarette smoking and alcohol abuse on oral health. Specific strategies are also proposed to develop smoking cessation interventions in the office practice of dentists and dental hygienists providing. Materials and methods. Original papers, reviews and guidelines on this subject, published in English and in Italian from 2006 to the first trimester of 2013, were located in the Medline/Pubmed database. Additional publications were obtained by searching the reference list of retrieved works. Results and conclusions. Cigarette smoking is the most important risk factor for oral squamous cell carcinoma and potentially malignant oral lesions; alcohol abuse increases oral cancer risk in a synergistic fashion. Moreover, cigarette smoking is the second risk factor for chronic periodontitis, after dental plaque, whereas further studies are needed to assess the role of alcohol consumption on onset and progression of chronic periodontitis. The “Five A’s” approach represents an effective protocol for smoking cessation that members of dental team can use with all smoker patients. The patients attempting to quit should use the nicotine replacement therapy, sustained-release bupropion or varenicline in order to significantly increase success rate of quit attempt.

Background The concept of field cancerization describes the tendency of patients with premalignant and malignant lesions of head and neck mucosal sites to develop multiple carcinomas of the upper aerodigestive tract. Here we address whether this concept should be extended also to patients affected by oral lichen planus (OLP), an inflammatory disorder associated with an increased risk of cancer development. Methods Data from a cohort of 45 patients with OLP who subsequently developed severe dysplastic changes and/or oral squamous cell carcinoma were retrospectively reviewed. Patients who presented more than one oral neoplastic event were considered for further data analysis as regards incidence, localization, management and prognosis. Results Twenty (44.4 %) patients were affected by one single neoplastic event while 25 (55.6 %) developed multiple and often multifocal oral dysplastic and/or malignant events. In most cases, a careful surveillance programme led to diagnosis and effective treatment of oral neoplasias at an early intraepithelial and microinvasive stage, leading to long-term survival. In some patients, however, additional primary tumours occurred suddenly with rapid invasion, leading to advanced stage diagnosis and poor prognosis. Overall, three patients (12 %) died due to malignant oral disease. Conclusions Patients with OLP and subsequent development of dysplasia/ oral squamous cell carcinoma are at risk of having multiple and multifocal neoplastic events of the oral cavity, a phenomenon which parallels the concept of field cancerization of traditional head and neck cancers. If detected at an early stage, these neoplasias can be managed with superficial and complete resection. However a small number of patients have loco-regional tumour spread despite a standard surveillance protocol.

In recent years, studies on the malignant potential of oral lichen planus (OLP) provided clinical evidence that patients affected by OLP have an increased risk to develop oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC); nevertheless, controversies still exist as to whether OLP has inherent predisposition to become malignant, or not. We believe extremely careful management of OLP patient is mandatory, and the aim of this paper is to illustrate our clinical guidelines in evaluating the possible risk of transformation in OLP lesions. Five-hundred and two patients (311 women and 191 men) affected by OLP regularly undergo follow-up examination in our Department. Patients' ages range from 18 to 83 years, with a mean of 55.4 years (57.5 for women and 53.9 for men); minimal follow-up period is 4 months, with a maximum of 12 years. In our group of OLP patients in the past 5 years we detected 24 carcinomas: excluding three cases in which diagnoses of OLP and OSCC were synchronous and three patients who had a history of tobacco use, thus possible malignant transformation of OLP would appear to be 3.7%. Clinical criteria used in our follow-up allowed us to detect 28.5% of tumours as in situ OSCC, 38% as microinvasive OSCC, 28.5% as stage I OSCC and 4.7% as stage II OSCC, with a remarkable improvement in prognosis compared to our previous study in which we adopted different criteria.