Objective: To determine the Toluidine blue as an adjunctive tool for diagnosis of premalignant and malignant oral lesions by taking histopathology as gold standard.
Methodology: This cross-sectional study was held at the Outpatient Department of Isra Dental College Hospital, Isra University, Hyderabad, over six months from January 2017 to June 2017. All patients of oral premalignant lesions were selected. Toluidine blue staining was used at lesion’s area. The dye was applied directly with a cotton bud for 10-20 seconds and was decolorized and a photograph was taken. The dye retention pattern was evaluated by stain retention’s intensity on the lesion. Incisional biopsy was performed simultaneously from that site as gold standard. The data was filled in proforma and analysis was done via SPSS version 20.
Results: Out of 60 cases, males were 49 (81.6%) and females were 11 (18.3%). The mean age of males and females was 41.9±10.7 years and 39.8±7.74 years respectively. 65.0% of patients had more than one addicting habit of mainpuri, gutka and supari. The commonest region of oral lesions was the buccal mucosa among 61.6% patients followed by alveolus in 16.6%, lips 8.3%, tongue 6.6%, retro molar area 3.33%, while palate and floor of mouth were involved in 1.66% patients. According to the diagnostic accuracy of methylene blue the sensitivity was 89.4% and specificity was 66.6%.
Conclusion: Toluidine blue staining is the best, reliable and noninvasive screening tools to detect the early diagnosis of malignancy
