Etiology and Treatment of Oral Recurrent Aphthous Stomatitis

 Recurrent Aphthous Stomatitis (RAS) is one of the most common oral mucosal diseases. Nowadays, the majority of published systematic reviews is increasing, hence healthcare decision makers are meeting much evidence in order to solving their clinical problems. The aim of the present umbrella review was to report current knowledge on etiology, diagnosis and treatment of RAS.

 In the present umbrella review, we searched for systematic reviews using PubMed, ISI web of science, Scopus and the Cochrane Library from the beginning of 2000 up to end of 2018 using the following key words: “systematic review” “Meta-analysis” and “aphthous”. Two investigators independently screened, extracted the data, and quality appraised the papers using Joanna Bridges Institute (JBI) protocol.

 Finally, 18 systematic reviews were included (8 on etiology and 10 on treatment). Out of these papers, findings of 6 meta-analysis suggested that hematologic deficiencies, interleukin polymorphism and helicobacter pylori seem to have association with RAS, however for treatment of RAS (including: topical, systemic and laser therapy) there were not conclusive findings.

 According to results of this study, hematologic deficiencies, interleukin polymorphism and helicobacter pylori are among the novel etiologies of recurrent aphthous stomatitis, although there is no presented unique and conclusive treatment option for this common lesion yet.