Beata Rumianek
University of Sydney, Australia
Title: Sexual behaviour and oral HPV status of general dental patients
Biography
Biography: Beata Rumianek
Abstract
High risk Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) has been identified as the causative organism of an increasing number of oropharyngeal squamouscell carcinomas (OSCCs). Other recognised risk factors include sexual behaviour and poor oral hygiene. We set out to investigate whether risk assessment for OPSCC could be undertaken in dental surgeries. Following Ethics Committee approval, participants aged ≥18 years completed demographic/behavioural questionnaires. Oral Hygiene Index (OHI) was recorded. 10ml saline oral rinses collected prior to dental treatment were tested for Human Beta Globin gene (HBG) and HPV genotypes by PCR The mean age of the 300 participants was 48 years (range 19-87), of whom 131 (43.6%) were male, 12 (9.2%) of men reported a history of sexually transmitted infections and one (0.3%) was known to be HIV infected.
HBG was detected in all samples and HPV genotypes in six samples (2.0%), all men. The HPV genotypes were one each of types 16, 66, 51, 35, 58 in five participants, and 18 combined with 52 in one participant. Eighty nine (67.9%) of men reported oral sex practices. Four (4.5%) of these 89 had oral HPV detected.The clinical relationship between the dental practitioner and patients enabled the collection of potentially sensitive demographic and behavioural data. Oral hygiene assessment was performed accurately and professionally. Oral rinse sampling was well tolerated by participants. Dental surgeries may be ideally placed to undertake risk evaluation for OPSCCs. Larger trials are needed to evaluate this method further, and determine correlations between persistent oral HPV infection and risk.