Background: The gingiva is a common site for neoplastic or non-neoplastic lesions. Neoplasms refer to progressive autonomous growth that can have either a benign or a malignant course. On the other hand, non-neoplastic lesions are mainly inflammatory, or occur as a reaction to some kind of irritation or lowgrade injury.
Objectives: Assessing the frequency distribution of gingival lesions is important to optimize oral health care services. The present study retrospectively analyzed the frequency distribution of gingival lesions on the basis of the 2017 World Workshop on the Classification of Periodontal and Peri-Implant Diseases and Conditions. The secondary objective was to compare this system with the 1999 International Workshop classification system.
Material and methods: The hematoxylin and eosin (H&E)-stained histopathological slides of the gingival lesions reported over the last 3 years (2018-2020) were retrieved from the archive of the Division of Oral Pathology and Microbiology at a tertiary care hospital in New Delhi, India. Correlating clinical, radiological and pathological details enabled the categorization of lesions according to the new classification system.
Results: In total, 73 gingival lesions were analyzed. Among these, reactive processes were the most frequent (39.73%), followed by inflammatory and immune conditions and lesions (26.03%), malignant tumors (21.92%), benign epithelial lesions (5.48%), and oral potentially malignant disorders (OPMDs) (5.48%). Genetic/developmental disorders were the least frequent (1.37%). However, as per the 1999 American Academy of Periodontology (AAP) system, the majority of lesions belonged to a non-specified category.
Conclusions: The frequency distribution of biopsied gingival lesions according to the 2017 World Workshop classification in comparison with the previous classification system showed that differences between the 2 systems could be attributed to heterogeneous terminology rather than to real geographical variations.
Keywords: benign epithelial; distribution; frequency; inflammatory; non-neoplastic.