Oral Manifestations of Crohn’s Disease
Almost 70 million Americans experience gastrointestinal conditions, such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), each year. As such, oral health professionals should be familiar with the oral manifestations of these disorders—as well as side effects of the medication regimens used to treat them—in order to facilitate early diagnosis and successfully provide care to this population.
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a category of chronic gastrointestinal diseases composed of Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.

IBD affects how many Americans each year?

Where is IBD more prevalent?

The use of tobacco at a young age is unrelated to the development of IBD.

Symptoms for Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis include abdominal cramping, diarrhea, and areas of ulceration within the intestinal tract that can cause intestinal bleeding.

Today, the diagnosis of Crohn’s disease is made via integrative interpretation of clinical, radiographic, and laboratory analyses.

Visible oral manifestations of Crohn’s disease include cobblestone appearance of the mucosa, deep linear ulcerations, mucosal tags, swelling of the lips, angular cheilitis, hyperplasia of erythematous gingiva, and recurrent ulcerations.

Patients with mild manifestations of Crohn’s disease may receive dental care without complications. But for patients who exhibit the recurrent aphthous ulcerations that occur in 10% of those affected, topical steroids may reduce healing time of ulcers and help alleviate resultant pain.

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