Diagnosis and treatment strategies for patients with refractory recurrent aphthous ulcer and systemic diseases

Recurrent aphthous ulcer (RAU) is one of the most common diseases of the oral mucosa. At present, no effective method is available for RAU treatment, especially for refractory RAU, which significantly affects patients’oral health and quality of life. Research shows that combination with systemic diseases greatly increases the difficulty of curing refractory RAU, making conventional oral ulcer treatment harder to perform effectively. This is probably because dentists commonly only focus on handling oral ulcers but neglect to think about the etiology of oral ulcers from a holistic perspective. Thus, we summarized some conditions of refractory RAU accompanied by systemic diseases, including inflammatory bowel disease, iron deficiency anemia, diabetes mellitus, Behçet’s disease, Reiter’s syndrome, sprue syndrome, Sutton syndrome, and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. We also outlined the treatment principles of these patients. To be specific, on the one hand, dentists should cooperate with the relevant specialists to treat the systemic diseases, while on the other hand they should take measures including topical/general use of medicine, local physical therapy, Traditional Chinese medicine treatment, and psychotherapy for RAU management. This paper aims to provide clinicians with a more comprehensive understanding of the diagnosis and treatment of refractory RAU, in order to make personalized treatment plans for patients and improve the clinical efficacy of refractory RAU.