Focal osseous dysplasia (FOD) is one of the benign fibro-osseous lesions of the jaw bones and the most commonly occuring benign fibro-osseous lesion. This entity occurs more commonly in females and has a predilection for African Americans. Radiographically, the lesion has a variable appearance depending on the duration but may appear as a radiolucent to radiopaque lesion that can be well to poorly defined. Hisotologically, when biopsied, there are fragments of bony trabeculae intermixed with fibrous stroma with incomplete stromal vasculature. The main differential diagnosis is with ossifying fibroma, which is neoplastic while FOD is considered a reactive process. Most patients with FOD may be followed clinically without surgical intervention.Keywords Osseous dysplasia Á Focal osseous dysplasia Á Focal cemento-osseous dysplasia Á Benign fibro-osseous lesions Á Jaw History A 43-year-old male had a history of an incidentally identified lesion in the posterior mandible. Over time, the lesion became more radiopaque, as observed during routine radiographic follow-up examinations.
Radiographic FeaturesPanorex view of the oral cavity showed a non-expansile, mixed radiolucent-radiopaque, moderately well-defined lesion in the posterior mandible distal to the #18 tooth (Fig. 1).
DiagnosisGrossly, the resected surgical specimen presented as multiple gritty fragments of tan-brown hemorrhagic tissue. Histologic examination on low magnification showed multiple fragments of curvilinear woven bone with intervening moderately cellular fibroblastic stroma in roughly equal proportions and scattered hemorrhagic foci (Fig. 2). Higher magnification revealed thick bony trabeculae without osteoblastic or cementoblastic rimming. There were no foci of inflammation. The stromal fibroblastic spindle cells were loosely arranged with oval nuclei and eosinophilic to clear cytoplasm (Fig. 3).
DiscussionBenign fibro-osseous lesions of the jaw encompass a range of clinicopathologic entities, a select few of which can be differentiated by histopathology alone. Knowledge of clinical and radiographic information in conjunction with histopathology is exceedingly important for accurate distinction. As the name implies, fibro-osseous lesions are