Destructive membranous periodontal disease (Ligneous periodontitis)

Generalized membranous gingival enlargement due to accumulation of amyloid or fibrin-like material is a rare, destructive and poorly defined disease entity. Some patients also show extraoral manifestations. The lesion is an involvement of periodontal tissues caused by the same process as ligneous conjunctivitis. In this report, 3 new cases, two of whom are siblings, are presented. Defective fibrinolysis and abnormal wound healing seem to be the main pathogenetic mechanism of this unusual disease, which should be evaluated systemically considering other mucosal involvement.