Conservative surgical approach to aggressive benign odontogenic neoplasm: a report of three cases

ABSTRACT

Aggressive benign odontogenic neoplasms have substantial potential to grow to an enormous size with resulting bone deformities, and they often invade adjacent tissues and spread beyond their normal clinical and radiographic margins; as such, they have a high rate of recurrence. Historically, management (conservative versus aggressive) on the basis of clinical, radiographic and/or histopathologic characteristics has been controversial. However, recent advances in the understanding of the biological features of these lesions may provide greater evidence of the benefits of conservative management. Three patients with different complaints and final histopathologic diagnoses were enrolled in the study. All three cases were treated by a single operator with similar conservative surgical procedures. During follow-up, the patients had uneventful secondary healing and bone regeneration, less packing time than previously reported, no clinical or radiographic evidence of recurrence and no apparent deformity. The aggressive behavior of these lesions requires long clinical and radiographic follow-up. Conservative surgical management may be an option to reduce recurrence and morbidity and increase the probability of uneventful secondary healing and bone regeneration.