STAFNE'S BONE DEFECT A LINGUAL DEPRESSION IN THE JAW: LITERATURE REVIEW

Abstract

Stafne's bone defect was considered for a long time as a bone cyst because it presents radiographically in a radiolucent, circumscribed form, with delimited borders and, in almost all cases, unilateral. Nowadays it is known that it is a depression and / or bone cavity caused by the accommodation of the submandibular gland or part of it and / or its adjacent tissues in the posterior region of the mandible, or in the anterior region in rarer cases by the accommodation of the sublingual gland. Therefore, the objective of this work is to carry out a brief literature review of the more specific characteristics and their variations of this anatomical anomaly. Searches were performed in journals of scientific articles published in electronic databases: PubMed, Scielo and Academic Google, containing scientific articles from the last ten years in English and Portuguese. The data show that the stafne bone defect has a predilection for males, it is asymptomatic, as it is an anatomical alteration, does not require treatment, therefore it is up to the dental surgeon to be aware, once panoramic to investigate other circumstances, and that many Sometimes it ends up leading the dental professional to perform misdiagnosis or mutilating tests such as a biopsy, which are unnecessary in this situation because this anatomical variation has characteristics that are very similar to cysts.

Keywords: Abnormalities; Jaw; Male Orthopantomography