Diagnosing and Raising Awareness about Oral and Cervicovaginal Diseases

Abstract

Little is known today about the possible correlations between oral and cervicovaginal diseases although some diseases affect these two regions of the human body. This study extensively investigated the pathologies caused by the Candida fungus and the herpes virus to establish the correlation between oral and cervicovaginal diseases. A questionnaire and a cytopathology test (Pap smear) were used to collect data from 118 women whose mean age was 41.51 years and who lived in the coastal city of Xangri-La, Brazil. Descriptive statistics and the Pearson correlation coefficient were used to analyze data (p=0.3 to p=0.7). The Pearson correlation coefficient showed that 16.9% of the women had oral herpes and oral candidiasis. Of the women who had oral herpes, 10% also had genital herpes, but there was no significant correlation between these diseases (χ2 = 0.255, p = 0.614); of those with oral candidiasis, 15% also had vaginal candidiasis, but there was also no significant correlation between these diseases (χ2 = 0.558, p = 0.455). After the cytopathology (Pap smear) results were reviewed, 45.8% of the women in the sample were referred to a gynecologist. Oral and cervicovaginal diseases, especially those that are sexually transmitted, have gained great importance in public health due to their growing incidence and because they affect women in all age groups. Their sequelae may be irreversible and, therefore, should be considered by dentists that treat women.