Common oral lesions found during a mass screening examination.

The first detailed study of common oral connective tissue and mucosal lesions in US adults is reported. More than 10% of the 23,616 white Americans who participated in a mass screening examination had at least one oral lesion. The 30 most common lesions, which represented more than 93% of all reported lesions, are ranked according to gender-specific prevalence rates. Leukoplakia was the most common mucosal lesion. Oral carcinoma ranked 24th overall. Data from this study are compared with data from other studies dealing with the prevalence of oral lesions.