Mucocele and Fibroma: Treatment and Clinical Features for Differential Diagnosis

Abstract

Mucocele is a benign lesion occurring in the buccal mucosa as a result of the rupture of a salivary gland duct and consequent outpouring of mucin into soft tissue. It is usually caused by a local trauma, although in many cases the etiology is uncertain. Mucocele is more commonly found in children and young adults, and the most frequent site is the lower inner portion of the lips. Fibroma, on the other hand, is a benign tumor of fibrous connective tissue that can be considered a reactionary connective tissue hyperplasia in response to trauma and irritation. They usually present hard consistency, are nodular and asymptomatic, with a similar color to the mucosa, sessile base, smooth surface, located in the buccal mucosa along the line of occlusion, tongue and lip mucosa. Conventional treatment for both lesions is conservative surgical excision. Recurrence rate is low for fibroma and high for oral mucoceles. This report presents a series of cases of mucocele and fibroma treated by surgical excision or enucleation and the respective follow-up routine in the dental clinic and discusses the features to be considered in order to distinguish these lesions from each other. M u c o c e l e a n d F i b r o m a : Treatment and Clinical Features

Mucocele oral provocada por mordida acidental: relato de caso

“…Cerca de 75% dos casos de mucocele possui menos de 1 cm de diâmetro, mas existem alguns casos descritos de lesões maiores, com 2-3 cm. De acordo com a literatura, quanto à incidência, não há diferença entre os sexos, embora sendo mais frequentes na segunda década de vida 15,16 .…”

“…Um dos diagnósticos diferenciais para mucocele são os fibromas, que também se caracterizam por lesão benigna de origem mesenquimal, entretanto a sua localização é, na maioria das vezes, a mucosa oral. Outra lesão que pode ser confundida com mucocele é o granuloma piogênico, cuja etiologia também pode ser um fator irritante 16 . Histologicamente, a mucocele de extravasamento mostra-se como uma cavidade circunscrita por tecido conjuntivo e submucoso, com estiramento do epitélio.…”

Surgical removal of large mucocele in a young patient: case report

“…For a favorable prognosis of surgical removal of Mucocele, it is necessary, firstly, to determine the clinical diagnosis of the lesion, knowing characteristics of fundamental lesions of the Odontological Semiology, since the Mucocele presents characteristics similar to other neoplastic lesions of the oral cavity [2,12,18].…”

Fibroma: case report

“…The final diagnosis was not provided only by the clinical findings especially the presence of constant trauma which led us to the primary diagnosis of irritation fibroma by the common location of it even in size exacerbated but also by histopathology, as corroborated by the findings of 7,8 .…”