Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine, Oral Pathology, Oral Radiology, and Endodontology
Oral and Maxillofacial RadiologyCherubism: A 36-year long-term follow-up of 2 generations in different families and review of the literature*
Section snippets
Patients and methods
The patients consisted of the 18 children and young adults who fulfilled the following objective criteria of cherubism: (1) clinically, a bilateral (rarely unilateral) painless expansion of the buccal bone surface in the posterior parts of the mandible, combined with (2) radiographic findings of multilocular (rarely unilocular) radiolucencies in the lower molar regions and posteriorly up into the coronoid processes, and (3) the pathologic bone cavities filled in by a tissue similar to the gross
Clinical findings
All 18 patients showed bilateral lesions without changes in the shape of the lingual bone surfaces of the jaws. Only the 2 patients of 3° showed exposure of the inferior part of the sclerae.
The grade of cherubism, based on the radiographic findings of the location and extension of the lesions at the age of 7 years, did not change during the progressive course of the disease. A significant sex difference in the distribution of grades was demonstrated (P <.05) with the highest median grade of 2+°
Discussion
Several family reports from different countries have clarified that cherubism is a hereditary bone disease1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 without relation to race.6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 However, single case reports have shown that cherubism may occur in a patient apparently without hereditary origin of the disease,17, 19, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27 as in 2 of the cases reported here.
In general, cherubism does not involve other parts of the skeleton2
Acknowledgements
The orthodontic evaluations of the patients were carried out by Professor Sven Kreiborg, Dr Odont, Department of Pediatric Dentistry, School of Dentistry, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen. The later clinical information and radiographs of the adult patient of 3° and his son were given by Dr Mogens Besserman, Chief of Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Næstved County Hospital, Denmark. The help from Professor Kreiborg and Dr Besserman, as well as the help from
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Cherubism in two siblings; a case report
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2021, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery CasesCitation Excerpt :Intraoral findings are associated with malocclusion and abnormal dentition with displaced, unformed, unerupted or absent teeth along with the early loss of deciduous teeth [8,13]. The radiographic findings consist of bilateral, multilocular and irregular radiolucent lesions of jaw bones [7,14]. The benign nature is shown by the non-disrupted thin cortical layer in the expanded bone [7,13].
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Reprint requests: Nina von Wowern, DDS, PhD, Dr Odont, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, School of Dentistry, University of Copenhagen, Nørre Allé 20, DK-2200 Copenhagen N, Denmark