Tumours, dentistry

In the oral cavity, benign tumours or even malignant tumours can develop, because new tumours are formed from cells from the jaw, the oral mucosa, the gums or from cells of tooth development.

In dentistry, dental tumours are called "odontogenic tumours". They are derived from cells of the tooth development.

All forms of benign or malignant tumours can occur in the mouth, head and neck area, so that the dentist is also confronted with them.

Jaw cysts are cysts that are located in the jawbone or around the jaw in the surrounding soft tissue such as connective tissue or muscles. Jaw cysts usually develop from an inflammation of the root of a tooth and when cysts are inflamed, so that an abscess often develops from them. Depending on the X-ray image, normal structures of the jaw can be confused with jaw cysts. In addition to the different types of jaw cysts, some tumours may show a similar picture on the X-ray image taken by the dentist, whereby tumours are normally benign and do not metastasise (metastasis), but in many cases grow in a displacing manner.

Many patients with a jaw cyst are diagnosed at the dentist by a chance finding on the X-ray, where the blurred boundaries of the inflamed cysts can easily be confused with osteomyelitis (inflammation of the jaw bone) or malignant tumours.

In dentistry, an abscess is an accumulation of pus in the tissue, such as pocket abscess, tooth abscess, tongue abscess, periodontal abscess or pulp abscess.