Background: Aging and its consequences has been a major population problem around the globe.

Objectives: This study aimed to determine the prevalence of anatomical variations and pathological lesions of oral mucosa among elderly dental patients.

Patients and Methods: We conducted this study on elderly patients who had attended Oral Medicine Department of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Dental School, Tehran, Iran. In total, 129 consecutive patients of 60 years of age or older were interviewed and clinically investigated for the presence of oral mucosal alterations. Lesions without definite clinical diagnoses were examined histopathologically. Data were analyzed by the Chi-square test and logistic regression by means of the SPSS software version 18.

Results: Out of the 129 elderly participants, aged between 60-87 years (mean: 66.71 ± 6.21), males constituted 58.1% (n = 75) of patients and female were 41.9% (n = 54). Normal variations of oral mucosa were observed in 62% (n = 80) of patients, while 44.2% (n = 57) had oral mucosal lesions. Normal variations were significantly associated with smoking (OR = 1.2), while denture wearers were at higher risk of oral pathological lesions (OR = 1.5). Meanwhile, the frequency of normal variations in men was 1.3 folds higher than that of women (P = 0.04).

Conclusions: The frequency of normal variations and oral lesions among elderly dental patients is high, and this is significantly associated with smoking, denture wearing and male sex.