Long-Term Patient-Reported Symptom Control with an Ibuprofen Gargle in Oral Lichen Planus: An Exploratory Analysis of a Randomized Crossover Trial and Extension

) with multidimensional symptoms from the 10-item Patient-Reported Oral Mucositis Symptom (PROMS) scale. Time-to-first achievement (TFA) was summarized, and responses were evaluated descriptively and visually. Overall PROMS response (Definition C) occurred in 21/24 participants (median TFA, 5 d). Domain-level responders were frequent (e.g., pain domain D 20/24, eating domain F 18/24; both median 5 d). In contrast, fewer participants met VAS-based endpoints: A 16/24 (between-day VAS) and B 17/24 (within-day VAS) over the observation period. Visual summaries suggested that improvements tended to emerge early and were sustained or recurrent across subsequent weeks in some participants. Although immediate analgesia was modest, this exploratory analysis indicated that regular use of ibuprofen gargling may be associated with early and durable improvements in patient-reported symptoms and function in OLP. These exploratory findings suggest that patient-centered endpoints may be useful for evaluating topical NSAIDs, and should be examined in future studies with larger sample sizes.