Diagnosis and management of odontogenic myxoma in a dog

A three-year-old Jack Russell terrier dog was presented with a large gingival mass of the right mandible extending from the fourth premolar to the first molar teeth. Radiographic examination of the expansile mass revealed moth-eaten, honeycomb-like lyses of the mandible and extended into the mandibular alveolar canal based on computed tomography. The histopathological diagnosis of the biopsy was odontogenic fibromyxoma. Mandibulectomy with resection of the associated soft tissues was performed. Surgical management was curative with no clinical signs of disease 2-years after treatment. These neoplasms are slow growing, locally destructive tumors of odontogenic origin that have been described in the jaw of only one dog. In this paper, the clinico-radiological and pathologic features, diagnostic modalities as well as the factors that might influence treatment outcome of odontogenic myxomas are discussed. These odontogenic tumors are currently excluded from the WHO classification of odontogenic tumors in domestic animals and inclusion in future classifications systems is proposed.