Drug Treatment of Oral Submucous Fibrosis: A Review of the Literature

Purpose To review the literature on drug treatment of oral submucous fibrosis. Materials and Methods An electronic search was performed for articles published from January 1960 to August 2008. Results Only 17 publications were searched, and 15 publications showed a high level of evidence (6 randomized controlled trials, 4 clinical trials/controlled clinical trials, and 5 other experimental studies), with a total of 1,224 patients. Conclusions Few studies with high levels of evidence were found. It is quite difficult to compare or even combine their outcomes in a scientifically meaningful manner. Because of insufficient research data, there is a need for high-quality randomized, controlled trials in this area of medicine. To review the literature on drug treatment of oral submucous fibrosis. An electronic search was performed for articles published from January 1960 to August 2008. Only 17 publications were searched, and 15 publications showed a high level of evidence (6 randomized controlled trials, 4 clinical trials/controlled clinical trials, and 5 other experimental studies), with a total of 1,224 patients. Few studies with high levels of evidence were found. It is quite difficult to compare or even combine their outcomes in a scientifically meaningful manner. Because of insufficient research data, there is a need for high-quality randomized, controlled trials in this area of medicine.