• General symptoms of Lichen Planus:
  • Purplish coloured rashes/lesions/bumps
  • Itching at the site of the rash
  • Oral lesions can be painful
  • Burning sensation
  • Thin white lines over the rashes
  • Blisters at the site of rashes
  • Lichen like appearance (lichen is a plant)
• Oral Lichen Planus:
  • It involves mouth, gums, tongue, and lips.

    

  • Blue white spots mostly inside the cheeks, gums, and sides of tongue.
  • Spider or net like appearance of white lacy lines (Wickham's striae)
  • Painful chewing
  • Redness, ulceration or erosion of inner surface of mouth
  • Dry mouth with metallic taste and burning sensation
• Nails:
  • Ridges and grooves on nails
  • Irregular longitudinal grooving
  • Thinning of nail plate and scar forms with destroyed cuticle
  • Atrophy of nail bed
  • Red streaks on nails
  • Subungal (beneath nails) hyper pigmentation
• Scalp:
  • Inflammation of hair follicles
  • Hair loss/Bald patches
  • Scaly itchy papules on scalp
  • Tiny red shiny papules around hair follicles
• Genitalia:
  • If genitalia are involved, it may cause difficult and painful intercourse.
  • stenosis of urethra causing difficulty in urination, itching at genitalia.
  • It causes painless or painful white streaks at genitalia which can be severely embarrassing.
  • It can cause stricture at entrance of vagina making intercourse painful. Vagina can bleed easily during sexual contact.
  • In males, it can cause lesion at the tip of penis.
• Others:
  • If lichen planus involves food pipe, it may cause pain during swallowing and difficulty in swallowing.
  • If it affects eyelids, ear, anus it can cause excoriation and erosion which can be painful.