Treatment of Recurrent Aphthous Stomatitis with Systemic Zinc Sulfate

A series of 67 out-patients with recurrent aphthous stomatitis with respect to zinc and copper deficiency were studied at the Medical and Surgical Research Center of Hacettepe University Medical School. Before the treatment serum zinc and copper deficiencies were observed in 54 cases of the entire series. Of these 40 patients were deficient in serum Zn only (mean 75.44 ± 9.55 g/dl), 2 cases serum Cu (mean 80 g/dl) and the remaining 12 were deficient in both trace metals (74.91 ± 8.60 and 78.36 ± 7.14 respectively). The remaining 15 patients revealed normal values for these two trace metals at the first evaluation. Following one, two and three months of treatment serum Zn (93.37 ± 13.49, 92.87 ± 14.88 and 98.94 ± 16.06) and Cu (89.45 ± 14.97, 97.82 ± 15.86 and 95.45 ± 8.49) levels of the patients rose parallel to the improvement in clinical findings. Of the 67 patients on systemic Zinc sulfate and copper sulfate treatment 40 revealed complete recovery of ulceration, and twenty-two showed definite improvement after 3 months of treatment. In the remaining 5 recurrences were observed, lesions however, were of shorter duration, painless, and smaller in size. The statistical analyses of the results were made using paired-t test.