Abstract
Many cases of sialolith and sialolithiasis have been reported in the literature, and several hypotheses on the formation of sialolith have been claimed, such as the inflammatory theory, the microbiologic theory, the foreign body theory, etc.. We encountered recently an interesting case of a sialolith suggesting foreign body theory of sialolity-formation.
A 13-year-old girl was referred to the dental hospital of our university with a complaint of swelling of her right submandibular region accompanied by pain. Radiographic examination revealed a wiry and metal-like radio-opaque substance in the right submandibular region. The patient had a history of ranula, and during surgical treatment of this condition, salivary sound had broken into a few fragments when salivary sound was inserted into the Wharton's duct. A clinical diagnosis of chronic sialadenitis of the right submandibular gland due to a foreign body was made and extirpation of the right submandibular gland was performed.
In the Wharton's duct, a club-like-shaped sialolith which was 13×4 mm in size and whitish-yellow in color was found.
Furthermorte, a wiry metal was seen in the center of this sialolith. Examination of soft X-ray showed calcareous deposition around the wiry metal. Therefore, it was thought that the sialolith in our case was formed by residual wiry metal as a foreign body.
