No abstract

The authors describe a seminal case report of a 10-year-old boy with enlarged gingivae in relation to his maxillary anterior teeth. The lesion, provisionally diagnosed as idiopathic gingival enlargement, was completely excised and divided into two sections. The histological and immunohistochemical findings in one of the sections showed it to be characteristic of schwannoma while the other section showed indications of idiopathic gingival enlargement. The patient has been followed up carefully and no recurrence has been noted.

The 'schwannoma', an infrequently occurring benign neural tumor, does not demonstrate proclivity for intraoral locations. However, if present the gingiva is only sporadically involved. In this case report, we present a unique case of 17-year-old female patient with enlarged nodular firm gingival mass in relation to her mandibular anterior teeth which was provisionally diagnosed as pyogenic granuloma. However, the histologic as well as immunohistochemical findings revealed it to be characteristic of schwannoma. After appropriate management, the patient has been kept under stringent follow-up and no recurrence has been noted.