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May 8, 2025
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August 6, 2025
Published
December 31, 2025
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Abstract

Introduction: The possibility of transformation of the epithelium lining the cavity of dentigerous cyst to a neoplastic one has been recognized for a number of cases, but it is difficult to establish that such an event has actually occurred. So, the current review aims to implement a systematic review to identify the potential demographic, clinical and radiological characteristics of the malignant transformation that arose in DC.  Material and method: The review was carried out per the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA). 50 articles were reviewed and reported 55 cases with neoplastic changes originated from dentigerous cysts.  Result: The demographic and clinical characteristics of the included cases showed that the mean age of the affected patients was 44.04 ±23.36 years, ranged from 1.33 to 84 years. Thirty-three patients (60%) were males. Most of the reported neoplasms were in mandible (72.7%). Primary sites of these neoplasms were the posterior regions (35, 63.6%), with majority of cases recorded in molar areas (26, 47.3%), while the incisor region affected less frequently (5, 9.1%). Radiographically, the majority of neoplasm appeared as unilocular radiolucency (39, 70.9%), while multilocular radiolucency reported in 2 cases only (3.6%). Histopathologically, malignant transformations were noticed in 40 cases (72.7%) and the majority of them were squamous cell carcinoma (35, 63.6%) mostly of well differentiated type (25, 45.5%), provided that 20 cases (36.4%) were not described regarding histological differentiation. On the other hand, adenomatoid odontogenic tumor represented as most benign lesion associated with the dentigerous cyst (10, 18.2% of all neoplasms and 66.7% of the benign lesions). Most of the neoplasm cases were reported in India (19, 34.5%) and were of Asian race (26, 47.3%). Conclusion: Although most studies report that neoplastic transformation rarely occurs in the lining of the dentigerous cyst but unfortunately, the malignancies occur with higher frequency than do the benign tumors.

Keywords

dentigerous cyst malignant systematic reviews meta-analyses

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Copyright (c) 2025 Ali H. Murad, Muna. S Merza, Maha Waleed Alghazali (Author)

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Ali H. Murad, Muna. S Merza and Maha Waleed Alghazali (2025) “A Systematic Review of case Reports of Neoplastic Changes in Epithelial lining of Dentigerous Cysts”, Future Dental Research, 3(2), pp. 49–56. doi:10.57238/fdr.2025.152576.1018.
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Ali H. Murad, Muna. S Merza and Maha Waleed Alghazali (2025) “A Systematic Review of case Reports of Neoplastic Changes in Epithelial lining of Dentigerous Cysts”, Future Dental Research, 3(2), pp. 49–56. doi:10.57238/fdr.2025.152576.1018.

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