Ossifying fibroma of the jaws: Report of two cases and literature review

Ossifying fibromas are uncommon benign tumors of the craniofacial skeleton thought to originate from the periodontal ligament. Most are small and incidentally diagnosed with routine dental radiographs. With larger lesions, patients may complain of an abnormal bite or an enlarging mass. This tumor involves slow-evolving growth with deforming swelling generally arising in the mandible, with possible early tooth displacement. From the radiological perspective, more than 50% of the lesions exhibit an expansion of the jaws and 53% shows well-defined unilocular radiolucencies and 40% are mixed radiolucent-radiopaque lesions. The lesions exceptionally can be radiopaque. Ossifying fibroma presents several variant histopathological subtypes. The overlapping clinical and histopathological features of these subtypes have led to diagnostic dilemma and confusion. Complete excision of this tumor has become a necessity since it is notorious for recurrence. We present here two cases of ossifying fibroma of the jaws along with insight into the literature review. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.