Pigmented Odontogenic Lesions

Pigmented odontogenic lesions are rare; to date, only 60 cases have been reported in the literature. Melanocytes have been detected in a wide variety of odontogenic lesions. Several studies have discussed melanocyte presence and melanin production in odontogenic lesions, but its origin is still unclear. Therefore, the present systematic review aimed to gather information on such cases.

An electronic search was performed in PubMed Central’s database The search strategy was limited to human studies (case reports and case series) and full-text English articles published till June 2021. Irrelevant articles were omitted.

Pigmented odontogenic cysts (66.66%) are more common than pigmented tumors. The most common pigmented cyst was calcifying odontogenic cysts (22 cases), followed by odontogenic keratocysts (10 cases). The most common pigmented neoplasm was mixed odontogenic tumors (10 cases). Pigmented lesions are more 
common in the Asian race.

The melanocyte presence in odontogenic lesions has no particular prognostic importance. Some possible factors in this field include ethnicity, dental hard tissue induction, neural crest cells, and dental lamina’s origin. Further documentation of such cases helps to improve the available information on these lesions.