Pyostomatitis vegetans: An oral manifestation of inflammatory bowel disease

Pyostomatitis vegetans (PV) is a rare kind of stomatitis that shares similar features of pemphigus and pyodermatitis vegetans. Although the pathogenesis of PV remains unknown, it is now regarded as an uncommon oral manifestation of inflammatory bowel diseases, including ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. A 33-year-old Caucasian woman came to our dental clinic for evaluation of multiple white oral lesions of 1 month’s duration. She had a medical history of ulcerative colitis and anemia for 8 years and was under regular follow-up at the internal medicine department of our hospital. She received multiple drugs including predonine (1 tablet per day, 5 mg/tablet), pentasa SR (3 tablets per day, 500 mg/tablet), plaquenil (1 tablet twice per day, 200 mg/tablet), colchicine (1 tablet per day, 0.5 mg/ tablet), and colace enema (1 mL per day, 20 mg/mL). Intraoral examination revealed multiple curvilinear pustules over the soft palate, anterior gingiva, retromolar pad, and buccal mucosa (Figure 1A). These lesions were