J Korean Assoc Maxillofac Plast Reconstr Surg.  2002 Sep;24(5):425-429.

Unicystic Ameloblastoma Presenting As A Radicular Cyst

• Park NJ
• Lee WH
• Yoon JH
• Min BJ

Abstract

Unicystic ameloblastomas are different from conventional ameloblastomas in clinical,radiographic and pathological characteristics. Clinically,the unicystic ameloblastomas tend to occur at an earlier age,and they are mostly located in posterior mandible. The lesions appear as well-circumscribed radiolucent unilocular lesion in radiographical studies.When removing the lesions, however, unicystic ameloblastomas share similar features with odontogenic cysts that the diagnosis may only become evident when the entire specimen is available for pathologic examination.Vickers and Gorin represented the early histological characteristics of ameloblastic change, and Robinson et al. described a distinct variant of ameloblastomas in which the response to enucleation was good, showing a low recurrent rate. We report a case of two identical featured radiolucent lesions on the periapical region of the left mandible. The lesions were thought to be periapical cysts clinically, but diagnosed as unicystic ameloblastoma based on their histologic findings.

Keyword

Unicystic ameloblastoma; Mandible; Radicular cyst

MeSH Terms

Ameloblastoma*
Ameloblasts
Diagnosis
Mandible
Odontogenic Cysts
Radicular Cyst*