Calcifying odontogenic cyst: a survey of 23 cases in the Japanese literature.

The clinical, radiographic and histological characteristics of the calcifying odontogenic cyst were studied in 23 well-documented cases in the Japanese literature. The cysts occurred equally in males and females whose mean age was 21 years. The appeared as a painless swelling with cortical expansion and involved the maxilla three times more often than the mandible. There was no report of the lesion involving the soft tissues. Radiographically, the lesions were unilocular in most cases and contained aggregates or dispersed foci in the radiolucencies which were diagnosed as odontomes in 5 cases. Unerupted teeth and root resorption of the adjacent teeth were noted in approximately half of the cases. Except for one case, they were simply enucleated under a diagnosis of cyst or odontome and recurrence was encountered in no case. The excised specimens consisted of cystic sacs mostly containing calcified materials with or without tooth-like structures which were histologically diagnosed as odontomes in 10 cases. An intimate relationship between the cysts and the unerupted teeth was observed in 4 out of 10 cases. The pathogenesis of the lesion is discussed.