1996 Volume 45 Issue 1 Pages 62-66
A case of peripheral ameloblastoma arising in the left retromolar region is described. The patient, a 59-year-old man, was hospitalized with a mass in the left mandibular gingiva. The hard mass was 25×20 ×15 mm in size, and the surface mucosa was normal except for erosion due to denture. The tumor, surrounding gingiva, and adjacent bone were excised by an intraoral procedure. Pathologic examination of the tumor revealed an ameloblastoma of the acanthomatous type. After surgery, no evidence of recurrence was observed.
The literature on peripheral ameloblastoma in Japan was reviewed. Sixty-three cases were reported in the past 27 years. The age of the patients ranged from 9 to 89 years, with a mean age of 50.7 years. Of 49 cases, there were 35 men and 14 women. The premolar region of the mandible was affected most frequently. Our case was the first one to occur in the retromolar region. Most of the lesions were 1 to 3 cm in size. In almost all cases, various methods of simple excision, local excision with curretage or wide excision with en bloc resection were selected. There was no recurrence in most cases, however, recurrence was found in two cases treated with simple excision.
