Evaluation of the prevalence of Fordyce spots prevalence in 2281 individuals from Recife

Abstract

Studies regarding the prevalence of oral pathologies are considered important in or¬der to know the oral health condition and the treatment needs in different populations. Due to the limited availability of data about the occurrence of Fordyce spots in the general population, the aim of the present study was to retrospectively determine the distribution of Fordyce spots among a group of individu¬als who attended the Faculty of Dentistry of UFPE, between January 1999 and Decem¬ber 2003, according to gender, age rank and skin colour variants. The total sample comprised 2281 patients (651 male and 1630 female), age ranging from 1 to 90 years of age. The occurrence of Fordyce spots was observed in 69 individuals (3,0%). Males were more commonly affected than females (4,3% versus 2,5%, p<0,05). The prevalen¬ce was null in the 1 to 10 years of age group (4,1%) and from 30 to 64 years of age it varied from 2,3% among whites to 3,5% among faodermas (3)0,05). Based on the results of the present study, Fordyce spots is not a rare disorder that affects mainly males from the fourth decade of life.