Prevalence of peripheral soft connective tissue lesions in patients referred to pathology department of Shahid Beheshti dental school, 1981-2006

peripheral soft connective tissue lesions are common in oral mucosa and despite their benign nature can make problems for patients. According to our knowledge, a comprehensive study for these lesions was not performed in Iran. General practitioners are commonly encountered affected with these lesions. They have not enough information about their clinical prevalence, may make mistake in diagnosis and treatment plan. The aim of this study was to evaluate peripheral soft connective tissue lesions prevalence in patients referred to Pathology department of Shahid Beheshti Dental School during 1981-2006. Methods & Materials: In this descriptive retrospective study (existing data), cases were patients that referred to Pathology Dept. (1981-2006) with complete files recorded in the Dept. Questionnaires included age, sex, location of lesion and lesion type which were retrieved from patient's files. The incomplete files were excluded. Finally the collected data were analyzed descriptively by SPSS Ver 11.0 software. A total number of 900 cases had peripheral soft connective tissue lesions during 1981-2006 from 4529 files in the department. 29.7% (268 cases) were irritation fibroma, 21.9% (197 cases) were peripheral giant cell granuloma, 19.5% (176 cases) were pyogenic granuloma, 19.3% (174 cases) were epulis fissuratum, 8% (72 cases) were peripheral ossifying fibroma, 0.5% (5 cases) were giant cell fibroma, 0.4% (4 cases) were oral focal mucinosis and 0.4% were inflammatory papillary hyperplasia. The most prevalent age was 50-59 years (18.1%) and 20-29 years (16.3%). The lesions were more prevalent in women (61.9%) and were 38.1% in men. The most prevalent site was gingival (54.3%) and the least prevalent site was floor of the mouth (0.1%). 19.9% peripheral soft connective tissue lesions were reported, the most frequent lesion was irritation fibroma that was similar to other reports.