Recurrent aphthous stomatitis, or RAS, is a common oral disorder of uncertain etiopathogenesis for which symptomatic therapy only is available. There are several proposed medication for treatment but thier efficacy are not ideal. The aim of this study is to evaluate the clinical efficacy of turmeric in the treatment of recurrent aphthous stomatitis in a double blind, placebo controlled and randomized trial.
Methods:
Setting
A two week, double blind, placebo controlled and randomized trial in the ward of oral medicine at Tehran University of Medical Sciences.
Study population
Patients between 20 and 45 years old will be included if they present with 1–5 aphthous ulcers of less than 24 h duration. The ulcers diameter will not be greater than 6 mm and they do not suffer from acute or chronic diseases of the oral mucosa Patients will be excluded from the study if they have concurrent clinical conditions including serious liver, kidney, and heart dysfunctions or if they have ulcers as a manifestation of a systemic disease process such as ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, Behcet’s syndrome, or serious anaemia. To minimize the effect of confounding variables in the psycho- physiological component of the study, the patients should not have a history of alcohol or drug abuse and should not take any narcotic analgesics. Patients will be excluded if they have a history of systemic immunosuppressive therapy. Patients will be assigned randomly (by computer-generated random number list), to receive turmeric or placebo (25 in each group)
Measurements
After enrolment, the size of ulcers will be measured by the investigator, and pain was evaluated by the subjects based on visual. analogue scale (VAS) before drug application (day 0) and at days 2, 6, 10 and 14.