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RGO.Revista Gaúcha de Odontologia (Online)

On-line version ISSN 1981-8637

Abstract

VEO, Paulo César Rodrigues; FARIAS, Rogério Estevam; STEHLING, Raquel Simões Silva  and  URBANO, Eduardo Stehling. Surgical treatment of actinic cheilitis. RGO, Rev. gaúch. odontol. (Online) [online]. 2010, vol.58, n.3, pp. 393-397. ISSN 1981-8637.

Actinic cheilitis is a change in the lips caused by chronic exposure to ultraviolet sun rays. It is common in older, fair skin individuals who work outdoors or have outdoor leisure activities and are constantly exposed to actinic radiation. This work discusses the clinical characteristics and their relationship with the microscopic findings, as well as diagnosis and treatment options for actinic cheilitis. The importance of early detection, implementation of preventive measures and clinical control of the patients to avoid lower lip cancer is emphasized. The present study presents a clinical case of actinic cheilitis with pictures taken during the entire treatment, including clinical detection (diffuse lesion, in plaque, with slightly erythematous borders and some loss of the sharp border between lip and skin), histopathological confirmation by incisional biopsy, surgical stages and 3 months after surgery, showing complete healing and absence of the preexisting lesion. This, knowledge of this type of lesion is critical because of its potential to develop into squamous cell carcinoma, which would represent a great risk for the general health of the patient who would later need to be mutilated or even die due to metastases if carcinoma develops and progresses.

Keywords : general surgery; diagnosis; cheilitis.

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