A Twenty-year Survey of Pathologic Reports of Two Common Types of Chronic Periapical Lesions in Shiraz Dental School

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Accurate differential diagnosis between radicular cysts and periapical granulomas cannot be made from radiographs alone. Histological prevalence studies, therefore, assume special importance and may aid the clinician in making judgments regarding therapy. The incidence of radicular cysts has ranged with wide discrepancies in data. The purpose of this study was to evaluate recorded pathologic reports of two common types of chronic periapical lesion in Shiraz Dental School. MATERIALS AND METHODS In this study, biopsy reports of 227 specimens of chronic periapical lesions were reviewed. The following information was extracted from each report: patient's gender, age, tooth associated with the lesion and the pathological diagnosis. Probable significant differences in the occurrence of lesions between different ages and genders were analyzed using chi-square test. RESULTS 15.9% of the lesions were granulomas, and 84.1% were cysts. A slight difference in the occurrence of the lesions was found between males and females with no statistical significance (P > 0.005). The highest incidence of both lesions was in the third decade of life. No significant differences were found in age distribution of the lesions. The most common location for two lesions was the maxillary anterior teeth. CONCLUSION Histological differentiation between cysts and granulomas is not always accurate and serial sectioning of excisional biopsies is more valuable than randomized sectioning of curetted biopsies.