Anterior lingual mandibular bone cavity as a diagnostic challenge: two case reports.

C n 1942, Stafne was the first to report the presence of one cavities in 35 patients. These usually create a ell-demarcated radiolucency in the posterior manibular angle and are synonymously known under ifferent names in the literature: Stafne bone cyst, tatic bone cavity, latent bone cyst, lingual mandibuar bone cavity, mandibular embryonic defect, idioathic bone concavity of the mandible, and developental submandibular gland defect of the mandible. hese cavities occur in the area between the mandiblar first molar and the mandibular angle below the andibular canal outline. Other than this radioraphic presence, they have no real clinical presentaion. They are innocuous convexities in the lingual ortex of the mandible that would be of no conseuence if they did not appear as radiolucency. It may e difficult to distinguish them from more serious onditions such as cysts and benign or malignant umors. Surgical exploration has shown that this hard