Oral Focal Mucinosis: A Painful Lesion of the Palate

Abstract

Background: Oral focal mucinosis (OFM) is a rare disease of unknown etiology, in which the connective tissue undergoes a focal myxoid degeneration. It was first described in 1974 by Tomich. Its pathogenesis is related to overproduction of hyaluronic acid by fibroblasts during the collagen production, resulting in focal myxoid degeneration. It has no distinctive features and diagnosis depends on histological analysis. Case: This paper reports a case of a 30 years old female treated at the Ambulatory of Stomatology of the Clinical Hospital - CH/UNICAMP, with a lesion growth and progressive pain in the palate, after performing dental treatment and discusses the clinical characteristics and differential diagnosis of myxomatous lesions of the oral cavity. Discussion: Since oral focal mucinosis has no distinguishing clinical features and the diagnostic is based on a histopathological examination, we ratify the importance of this procedure to confirm the diagnosis. This article is based on literature review and reports a case of oral focal mucinosis, its clinical and surgical outcome and demonstrates the importance of biopsy and pathological examinations in differential diagnosis of nodular masses in the oral cavity. Keywords: Focal mucinosis, polyp of the oral cavity, oral tumor, stomatology, oral lesions. Read more →