Evaluation of benign oral and maxillofacial lesions in the pediatric population

Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare the prevalence of benign lesions in the bone and soft tissues of children and adolescents who were treated at the oral and maxillofacial surgery clinic. Methods: The data were compiled from records from Eskişehir Osmangazi University. The lesions were divided into 5 main groups: odontogenic cysts, odontogenic tumors, giant cell lesions, fibroosseous lesions and soft tissue lesions. Patients were grouped into children (0–9 years) and adolescents (10–17 years) according to the developmental stage in their first and second decades to evaluate the distribution of lesions according to age. The jaw quadrant was divided into 2 groups: lower jaw and upper jaw. Jaw location was divided into 2 groups: anterior and posterior. Results: The most common pathologies were odontogenic cysts (64.7%), followed by odontogenic tumors (21.4%), giant cell lesions (7.1%), fibroosseous lesions (2.1%) and soft tissue lesions (4.6%). The distributions of lesions according to jaw quadrant, jaw location and age group were significantly different. More lesions were observed in the lower jaw (p < 0.01), posterior region (p = 0.020) and 10–17 years of age (p = 0.015). Conclusions: This study helps improve the differential diagnosis of jaw and gingival lesions by highlighting the prevalence of odontogenic cysts and tumors in pediatric patients. This finding highlights the need to increase awareness of these lesions, as they are more common in the 10–17 years age group. Education given to parents about early detection of lesions increases the rate of early diagnosis and enables comparative studies with the data collected. The findings also draw attention to the evaluation of genetic, environmental and lifestyle factors in the distribution of pathology.

Biopsy; Oral pathology; Pediatric; Prevalence

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