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Updated: Oct 20, 2025
Systematic Assessment of Mammalian Skull Specimens for Dental and Temporomandibular Joint Pathology
Published on: August 22, 2022
What factors differentiate dentigerous cysts from other pericoronal lesions?
Daniel P Caruso1, Cameron C Lee1, Zachary S Peacock2
1Resident, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
Objective:
To evaluate the histopathologic outcomes of pericoronal radiolucencies and identify factors predictive of diagnosis.
Study Design:
A retrospective cohort study of 258 patients with 280 radiolucent pericoronal lesions undergoing treatment at our institution between 2005 and 2019. The primary predictor variable was lesion size (≥2 cm and <2 cm). The primary outcome variable was histopathologic diagnosis (dentigerous cyst vs other pathologic entity). Descriptive, bivariate, and multiple logistic regression statistics were computed to measure the association between clinical and radiographic variables and histopathologic diagnosis.
Results:
The study sample was composed of 258 patients with 280 histopathologic specimens. There were 218 dentigerous cysts (77.9%) and 62 other pathologic entities (22.1%). Lesions ≥2 cm were 3.20 times more likely to be diagnosed as a nondentigerous cyst pathologic entity (P ≤ .001). After adjusting for jaw (maxilla vs mandible), pain, history of infection, cortical perforation, expansion, and multiple lesions, younger age (P ≤ .001, odds ratio [OR] = 0.950, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.929-0.972) and lesion size as a continuous variable (P = .007, OR = 1.06, 95% CI = 1.02-1.11) were independent predictors of other pathologic entities.
Conclusions:
The majority of pericoronal radiolucent lesions were dentigerous cysts. Younger age and larger lesions were independent predictors of other pathologic entities.
