• Gabriela Wehbe Kesserwani, Núbia Carina de Oliveira, Thayse Caroline de Oliveira, Thiago Beltrami Dias Batista, Cassiano Lima Chaiben, MachadoMaria Ângela NavalMÂNDepartment of Stomatology, Universidade Federal Do Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil., and Antonio Adilson Soares de Lima.
• Department of Stomatology, Universidade Federal Do Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil.
• J Formos Med Assoc. 2022 Apr 1; 121 (4): 824-831.

Background/PurposeActually, many individuals have opted for the vegetarian diet. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of the vegetarian diet on the oral epithelium through cytopathology.MethodsOral smears of the tongue and buccal mucosa of 60 adult subjects (30 vegetarians and 30 controls) were collected. Smears were analyzed morphologically and for three morphometric variables: nucleus area (NA), cytoplasm area (CA) and nucleus/cytoplasm ratio.ResultsVegetarians were classified as ovolactovegetarian (53.3%), vegans (30%) and strict vegetarians (16.7%). The NA and CA of the epithelial cells of vegetarian individuals were smaller when compared to controls both in the region of the buccal mucosa and tongue. However, there was no statistically significant difference according to the Student's t-test. For the NA/CA ratio, cells in the oral mucosa region were larger for vegetarians compared to controls. For the tongue, both groups had the same value and the Mann-Whitney U test confirmed that there is no difference between the groups for this cytomorphometric variable.ResultsVegan individuals had a smaller (but not larger) area of CA when compared to controls for the tongue (vegan = 2604.2 ± 179.2 versus control = 3256.7 ± 463.8 p = 0.013). Most smears showed normal epithelial cells and some individuals had changes of an inflammatory nature, mainly in the tongue.ConclusionDespite the small sample size, the results of this study raise the hypothesis that the vegetarian diet (especially the vegan diet) can compromise the thickness of the oral epithelium of the tongue.Copyright © 2021 Formosan Medical Association. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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