DIFFUSE WHITENING OF THE ORAL-MUCOSA IN A CHILD

We report a healthy 16-year-old Caucasian boy, who consulted us for wh ite, asymptomatic lesions in the mouth, The lesions were stable and ha d been present for 6 years, On physical examination, there were diffus e white, soft, corrugated plaques involving the buccal and labial muco sa, oral commissures, and floor of the mouth. No other mucosae were af fected and there were no skin or nail abnormalities, The histologic fi ndings revealed epidermal hyperplasia with parakeratosis and intracell ular edema in the squamous cell layer, No nuclear atypia was observed, A differential diagnosis of three entities is proposed: white sponge nevus, leukoedema, and focal epithelial hyperplasia.