Peripheral Ossifying Fibroma Mimicking Pyogenic Granuloma: A Case Report and Review of Literature

A diagnostic challenge is usually present with oral soft tissue swellings due to similarity in the clinical presentation of variable oral lesions.Peripheral Ossifying Fibroma (POF) is a benign tumor of the gingiva, usually classified as a reactive hyperplasia but frequently as a benign neoplasm. Its typical clinical presentation includes gingival swelling that is slowly growing usually from interdental papilla in anterior maxilla and small in size <1.5 cm in diameter. It accounts about 9.6% of all gingival swellings and 3.1% of all oral tumors with female predilection. Pyogenic Granuloma (PG) is the most common type of hyperplasia in the oral cavity and is considered a non-neoplastic tumor. PG accounts about 37% to 42% of all gingival hyperplastic lesions with female predilection. PG and POF share common clinical presentation and etiologic factors which make their clinical differentiation confounding. The purpose of this article is to report a case of POF and review the current literature. A case of 27 years old Saudi male presented with a large gingival swelling affecting his aesthetic with one year duration. The lesion was excised and long term follow up has been planned to prevent recurrence. The histopathologic diagnosis of the lesion was POF that has been clinically identical to PG. The case varies from the usual clinical presentation and the paper discusses the need to find clinical diagnostic criteria to solve the diagnostic challenge.