Purpose: This study was aimed to evaluate the levels of serum zinc in erosive and non-erosive oral lichen planus (OLP) and to compare it with the healthy control group to find out any feasible inference. 

  Materials and Method: A total of 22 patients with erosive oral lichen planus, 22 patients with non erosive OLP and 44 healthy individuals as the control group were recruited in this descriptive-comparative study. All the participants were selected from the referees to the department of oral medicine, school of dentistry, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. Serum zinc level was examined for all the individuals with liquid-stat kit (Beckman Instruments Inc. Carlsbad, CA). Data were analyzed by adopting the ANOVA and Tukey tests, using SPSS 16 statistical software. 

  Results: The mean age of patients with erosive and non-erosive LP was 41.7 and 41.3 years, respectively. The mean age of the healthy control group was 34.4 years .The mean serum zinc levels in the erosive and non erosive lichen planus groups and control groups were 8.3 (1.15), 11.15 (0.92) and 15.74 (1.75) μg/dl respectively. The difference was statistically significant (p< 0.05).

Conclusion: The serum zinc levels were decreased in patients with erosive oral lichen planus. This finding may probably indicate the promising role of zinc in development of oral lichen planus.