Controversial Odontogenic Hamartomas- Review on Their Pathogenesis and Histopathology

Abstract

metimes understated. There always lays a big controversy depicting an entity as hamartoma. Hamartomas are frequently encountered in major organs like liver, lung, pancreas etc. but the occurrence in oral cavity is rare. The lesions enlisted in this review may not be true hamartomas but depicts strong correlation to neoplasms. Understanding the hamartomatous nature of an odontogenic entity will help us understanding the outcome of the treatment and chances of fatality HAMARTOMASHamartomas, which are dysmorphic or morphologically altered proliferation of cells native to the organ in which they arise, gain a certain size before ceasing their proliferation. This type of biologic behavior may be expansile and is locally resorptive of bone but does not invade adjacent tissue. ODONTOGENIC GINGIVAL EPITHELIAL HAMARTOMA (OGEH)There are two important sources that are responsible for the development of the odontogenic group of lesions; cell rests of Serres (remnants of dental lamina) and cell rests of Malassez (remnants of Hertwig epithelial root sheath). These cell rests are found as clusters which upon getting stimulus give rise to pathological entities. The terminology OGEH was initially suggested by Baden et al [1,2] . This lesion has a rare occurrence, prevalent mostly in the middle age group (3 rd to 5 th decade) and most commonly seen in females (M: F-1: 7) [1,2,3] . The lesion present as a slowly growing, recurrent in occurrence in the soft tissues like gingiva and vestibule. ABSTRACTOdontogenic tumour represents as growth and swellings of variedorigin. The histopathological features of hamartomatous odontogenic entities are not very distinct from neoplasms, but they exhibit different biological behavior. The pathobiology of these lesions is so-