[Odontogenic cysts of the jaws. A clinicostatistical study]

In this paper a retrospective clinicostatistical study of 508 cases of odontogenic cysts of the jaws treated at the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery of the University of Athens during the last ten years 1977-1987 is undertaken, in order to evaluate their frequency and other aspects of clinical and therapeutic interest. These 508 odontogenic cysts represent 78.7% of the total number of cysts of the jaws treated in the same period in our department which means that the frequency of odontogenic cysts is still high. In regards to the incidence of each variety of odontogenic cysts, radicular cysts were found to have the highest frequency (59.6%), followed by the residual cysts (28.4%) and dentigerous cysts (12%). A higher incidence of odontogenic cysts in males (65.3%) than in females was also found, a fact which accords with that of other authors. The age distribution for patients with radicular cysts was the 3rd decade, for patients with residuals cysts the 6th decade and for patients with dentigerous cysts the 2nd decade. The majority of radicular and residual cysts was located in the maxilla whereas dentigerous cysts were more frequently located in the third molar mandibular area. Intraoral painless swelling was the most important clinical finding (74.6%). Radiologically the most frequent finding was that of a radiolucent area surrounded in 96.2% of our cases by a continuous radiopaque line. All these lesions were treated either by enucleation and apicoectomy of the teeth or by enucleation and extraction of the teeth followed by primary closure of the surgical cavity. In two cases of dentigerous cysts a two stage operation was performed. The results were highly satisfactory.