Background: Many coeliac disease patients with atypical symptoms remain undiagnosed.
Aim: To examine the frequency of oral lesions in coeliac disease patients and to assess their usefulness in making coeliac disease diagnosis.
Patients and methods: One hundred and ninety-seven coeliac disease patients and 413 controls were recruited and the oral examination was performed.
Results: Forty-six out of 197 coeliac disease patients (23%) were found to have enamel defects vs. 9% in controls (P < 0.0001). Clinical delayed eruption was observed in 26% of the pediatric coeliac disease patients vs. 7% of the controls (P < 0.0001). The prevalence of oral soft tissues lesions was 42% in the coeliac disease patients and 2% in controls (P < 0.0001). Recurrent aphthous stomatitis disappeared in 89% of the patients after 1 year of gluten-free diet. Multi-logistic analysis selected the following variables as the most meaningful in coeliac disease patients: dental enamel defects (OR = 2.652 CI = 1.427-4.926) and soft tissue lesions (OR = 41.667, CI = 18.868-90.909). Artificial Neural Networks methodology showed that oral soft tissue lesions have sensitivity = 42%, specificity = 98% and test accuracy = 83% in coeliac disease diagnosis.
Conclusions: The overall prevalence of oral soft tissue lesions was higher in coeliac disease patients (42%) than in controls. However, the positive-predictive value of these lesions for coeliac disease diagnosis was low.