Root resorption caused by osteoma growth

introduction. Osteoma is a benign and asymptomatic neoplasm, consisting of well-differentiated mature bone. The solitary osteoma may be classified as: peripheral when arising from the periosteum, central when arising from the endosteum and extraskeletal when arising in soft tissue. The etiology of osteoma is still unclear. Some reported cas- es did have a clear history of trauma; however, this was not the case in the majority of cases. Whereas peripheral osteomas are fairly easy to diagnose, central osteomas pose a more challenging diagnostic problem and need to be differentiated from other similar lesions of the jaws, such as central ossifying fibroma, osteoblastoma, cementoblas- toma and odontoma in cases occurring within toothbearing areas. Osteomas are usually asymptomatic. We reported a case of the central osteoma associated with partially root resorption of the mandibular first molar. Case report. A 22-year-old boy referred to our institute with an ortopantomography and CT-scan revealed the pres- ence of a large and well defined osteosclerotic lesion between elements 4.5 and 4.6. The lesion had caused root re- sorption of element 4.6. The patient did not report the presence of other systemic pathologies or of trauma in this re- gion. The surgery conservative approach was preferred in order to avoid permanent injury of the inferior alveolar nerve and histological examination revealed that the lesion was a benign osteoma of the right mandible. Conclusion. Osteomas are usually asymptomatic and have a very slow growth rate but we report a rare case of an extensive osteoma of the right mandible involving the medial roots of the first molar. So corrected diagnosis of this le- sions is only histological