Odontogenic tumors - A demographic study of 759 cases in a Chinese population

Seven hundred fifty-nine cases of odontogenic tumors retrieved from the fil es of College of Stomatology, West China University of Medical Sciences wer e classified according to the World Health Organization's Histological Clas sification of Odontogenic Tumors and compared with similar reports from oth er countries. Among these cases, 93.9% of the tumors were benign and 6.1% w ere malignant. Ameloblastomas predominated (58.6%) with a predilection for the mandible, while odontomas, generally regarded as the most frequent odon togenic tumor in North America, only accounted for 6.7%, the fourth most co mmon tumor in this series. The mandible and the maxilla were divided into e ight anatomic regions, and the distribution of each odontogenic tumor type amongst these regions was recorded. The relative incidence of each tumor ty pe, patient age and gender were also compared with data from other selected large series. Geographic differences were noted in the relative incidence of ameloblastoma, odontoma and malignant odontogenic tumors among the Chine se/African, North American and Turkish/German groups. Ameloblastoma and mal ignant odontogenic tumors are not considered rare in a Chinese population.