Research Achievements of Oral Submucous Fibrosis: Progress and Prospect

Table 1

The latest treatment/management strategies of OSMF.

Nonsurgical treatment	Medical treatment	Molecular target	References
	Steroids (such as glucocorticoids)	Anti-inflammation	[75–77]
	Corticosteroid (such as hydrocortisone and dexamethasone)	Anti-inflammation	[78–80]
	Hyaluronidase	Hydrolyzed hyaluronic acid, reduced collagen formation	[81–83]
	Chymotrypsin	Hydrolyzed collagen	[84]
	Collagenase	Hydrolyzed collagen	[85]
	Colchicine	Anti-inflammatory neutralizing cytokines (TGF-β, IL-4), increased collagen hydrolysis activity	[86]
	Traditional Chinese medicine (such as Salvia miltiorrhiza)	Anti-inflammation, activating blood circulation to dissipate blood stasis	[46]
	Physiotherapy	Molecular target	References
	Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBO)	Promote fibroblast apoptosis, inhibit fibroblast activity, and anti-inflammation and antioxidation	[49–51, 87]
	Photodynamic therapy (PDT)	Laser irradiation at a specific wavelength causes an oxidation reaction, resulting in cytotoxicity, cell damage, and death	[53–55]
	EZBite opening device	Improve triceps, improve mouth opening	[47]
	Nutritional support	Molecular target	References
	Ginger butter resin, ginger butter, and turmeric extract	Anti-inflammation; antioxidation; inhibit p53, TGF-β, and iNOS; reduce CTGF	[57–59, 88]
	Lycopene	Inhibit fibroblast activity, anti-inflammation, strong antioxidation	[59]
	Honey	Anti-inflammation, antioxidation	[60]
Surgical treatment	Reconstruction of defect area	Advantage	References
	Split-thickness skin graft	Early application	[61]
	Bilateral nasolabial flap	Easy to lift, close to the defect, with minimal swallowing and speech difficulties	[62–65]
	Buccal fat pad	Postoperative complication rate is low and scar formation is low	[66, 67]
	Platysma myocutaneous flap	Less scar formation	[89]
	Superficial temporal fascial flap + skin graft coverage	Postoperative appearance and good mouth opening	[90]
Stem cell therapy	Stem cell source	Molecular target	References
	Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells, dental pulp stem cells, adipose mesenchymal stem cells, etc.	Release cytokines and growth factors to achieve neovascularization; enhance the ability of antioxidants to scavenge free radicals; remove senescent cells in lesions	[68, 69]