Subpontic Osseous Hyperplasia: Comprehensive Review of the Literature and Presentation of New Case History

Purpose: To increase awareness of subpontic osseous hyperplasia (SOH), an uncommon benign mass found underneath the pontics of fixed partial dentures (FPDs) and occasionally in implant-supported dental prostheses. Materials and Methods: A PubMed search in the English-language literature was conducted for case reports and case series of SOH. Demographic information gleaned from these publications included patient age and gender, lesion sites, outcomes, comorbidities, symptomatology, and periodontal involvement. To exemplify the findings of SOH, a clinical investigation of a 73-year-old affected woman has been detailed. Results/Conclusion: With the inclusion of this featured case, 71 patients with 80 affected sites were identified with SOH and served as the basis for the provided database. To date, this aggregation of cases represents the largest collection to undergo clinicopathologic review. SOHs appeared as dome-shaped radiopacities and tended to exhibit increased osteosclerosis with increased duration. The average age at discovery was 57 years, and SOH was found somewhat more often in women. Lesions were more likely to occur in the left posterior mandible. Affected patients may experience increased difficulty maintaining adequate oral hygiene, potentially leading to periodontal disease or discomfort. Overgrowths should be surgically removed when satisfactory oral hygiene measures have been compromised, when there are atypical clinical or radiographic presentations, or with incident symptomatology.