Tumors of the dental lamina: a selective review.

The dental lamina is a thickening of the primitive oral epithelium that begins to develop in the sixth week of embryonic life. Three uncommon tumors derived from the dental lamina include ameloblastic carcinoma, maxillary ameloblastoma, and squamous odontogenic tumor. Such tumors must be differentiated from the more common tumors of oral, oropharyngeal, and paranasal squamous mucosal neoplasms as well as salivary gland neoplasms using clinical, radiographic, and histopathologic evidence.