a survey of soft tissue tumor-like lesions of oral cavity: a clinicopathological study

background and objective: different mechanisms may lead to the development of soft tissue tumor-like lesions in the oral cavity. many of these lesions can be identified as specific entities on the basis of their histopathological features and are divided into fibrous, vascular, and giant cell types. the purpose of this study was to establish the relative prevalence of the different histopathological aspects of biopsies of oral soft tissue tumor-like lesions at school of dentistry, kerman univ. med. sci. materials and methods: documents and records of 260 patients with localized lesions of oral tissues diagnosed from march 1996 to march 2004 were reviewed. the lesions were classified into either fibrous or soft hemorrhagic lesions. clinical data regarding age, gender, location, and treatment of lesions were obtained for each case. data included in the present retrospective study were analyzed by spss statistical software (13.5) using t- test and chi-square tests. results: a total of 260 surgical specimens of lesions of the oral cavity presented clinically were studied; 143 cases (55%) had fibrous lesions and 117 cases (45%) had soft hemorrhagic lesions. the fibrous lesions included 91 cases (63.6%) of gingival lesions, whereas 98 cases (83.76%) of the soft hemorrhagic lesions had gingival lesions. the patients were simultaneously treated by excisional biopsy and elimination of the chronic irritant. conclusion: oral lesions are often detected by dental professionals, surgeons and ent specialists. knowledge of the frequency and presentation of the most common oral lesions is beneficial in developing a clinical impression of such lesions encountered in practice.