Abstract

Objectives: We planned this study to evaluate the proliferative activity of the oral mucosal epithelial cells of smokers and non-smokers via nuclear morphometry and AgNOR counts.

Patients and Methods: Smears were collected from normal-appearing mouth floor mucosa of 40 non-smokers and 40 smokers between ages of 50 and 70. AgNORs were counted in the first 50 well-fixed, nucleated squamous cells and nuclear areas were calculated via computerized image analyzing system.

Results: Statistically mean AgNOR numbers per nucleus in the nonsmoking group (3.47±0.30) was lower than the smoking group (4.22±0.39, p<0.001), and mean nuclear areas of squamous cells of smokers (94.32±10.08) was also significantly higher than non-smokers (87±9.4, p<0.05). The mean number of nuclei having more than 5 AgNORs was 14.6% and 36.8% in non-smokers and smokers, respectively.

Conclusion: Our results support that smoking is a severe risk factor for oral mucosal proliferative lesions and exfoliative cytology can be the preferred method for screening of oral mucosal lesions.