Logo
Search for

Volume 66, Issue 11, Pages 2284-2289 (November 2008)


View previous. 19 of 47 View next.

Clinicopathology of Soft Tissue Lesions Associated With Extracted Teeth

Olalere Gbolahan, FWACSCorresponding Author Informationemail address, Olawunmi Fatusi, FWACS, Foluso Owotade, FWACS, Jelili Akinwande, FWACS§, Kehinde Adebiyi, FWACS

Purpose

The study assessed the prevalence and the clinical and histologic pattern of soft tissue lesions associated with extracted teeth and determined the validity of clinical diagnoses in comparison with histologic diagnosis.

Patients and Methods

Soft tissue from the apices of 100 teeth extracted by the intra-alveolar approach and from the follicle of 50 teeth extracted by the transalveolar approach was examined histologically subsequent to clinical diagnosis. The subjects were seen within a 2-year period at the Oral Surgery unit of a Nigerian teaching hospital. Association between age, gender, and the histopathologic diagnosis was assessed, and the clinical presumptive diagnoses were compared with the histopathologic diagnoses using the epidemiologic parameters of sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values.

Results

There were 76 (50.7%) males and 74 (49.3%) females, with age range of 17 to 77 years (33 ± 14 years). Although clinical diagnosis indicated that all the cases were inflammatory in origin, histopathologic diagnosis reported 84% to be of inflammatory origin, 10% to be normal tissue, and 6% to be noninflammatory in nature. The noninflammatory lesions included dentigerous cyst (4%), central giant cell granuloma (1.3%), and ameloblastoma (0.7%). Gender and age were not associated statistically with type and frequency of pathology. Inflammatory conditions showed the highest sensitivity (98%).

Conclusions

The study showed that the probability of clinical misdiagnosis of pathologically significant lesions associated with extracted teeth is lowest with inflammation and highest with cysts and neoplasms. Thus, routine histopathologic examination of all recoverable soft tissues associated with extracted teeth would contribute to improve management of cases although the cost and related implications of this need to be investigated further.

 Consultant Maxillofacial Surgeon, Osun State Hospital, Osogbo, Nigeria

 Associate Professor, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Faculty of Dentistry, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria

 Associate Professor, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Faculty of Dentistry, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria

§ Professor, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, College of Medicine of the University of Lagos, Nigeria

 Senior Lecturer, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Faculty of Dentistry, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria

Corresponding Author InformationAddress correspondence and reprint requests to Dr Gbolahan: PO Box 1905, Obafemi Awolowo University Post Office, Ile-Ife, Nigeria

PII: S0278-2391(08)00325-X

doi:10.1016/j.joms.2008.03.005


View previous. 19 of 47 View next.