ODONTOGENIC TUMORS: WHERE ARE WE IN 2017?

Odontogenic tumors are a heterogeneous group oflesions of diverse clinical behavior and histopathologictypes, ranging from hamartomatous lesions to malignancy.Because odontogenic tumors arise from the tissues whichmake our teeth, they are unique to the jaws, and by extensionalmost unique to dentistry. Odontogenic tumors, as in normalodontogenesis, are capable of inductive interactions betweenodontogenic ectomesenchyme and epithelium, and theclassification of odontogenic tumors is essentially basedon this interaction. The last update of these tumors waspublished in early 2017. According to this classification,benign odontogenic tumors are classified as follows:Epithelial, mesenchymal (ectomesenchymal), or mixeddepending on which component of the tooth germ givesrise to the neoplasm. Malignant odontogenic tumors arequite rare and named similarly according to whether theepithelial or mesenchymal or both components is malignant.The goal of this review is to discuss the updated changes toodontogenic tumors and to review the more common typeswith clinical and radiological illustrations.