Cherubism

Cherubism is a benign, hereditary giant cell lesion of the jaws, that appears in children as a bilateral painless swelling, between the ages of 2 and 5 years and progresses until puberty, when it spontaneously regresses. It normally requires no treatment. We had the chance to operate on a 5-year-old boy with cherubism 8 years ago, and used homogenous bone grafts to replace the diseased tissue to avoid pathological fracture of the mandible. Since then we have been following the patient, witnessing the gradual involvement of other sites in the jaws and the displacement of teeth and tooth germs.