Archives of Orofacial Sciences (2008), 3(1): 7-10 7 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Cases of mucocele treated in the Dental Department of Penang Hospital A.K. Rashid a *, N. Anwar b , A.M. Azizah c , K.A. Narayan a a Department of Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Science, AIMST University, Semeling, 08100 Sungai Petani, Kedah, Malaysia. b Dental Department, Penang Hospital, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia. c Health Department, Non Communicable Disease Control, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia. (Received 19 March 2008, revised manuscript accepted 15 June 2008) Keywords Case review, mucocele, Penang Hospital. Abstract A mucous cyst is a benign, self limiting mucous containing cyst of the salivary glands commonly occuring in the oral cavity. Mucocele may develop following the obstruction of the salivary flow from secretory apparatus of the salivary gland. Mucoceles commonly occur on the lower lip but may occur in other locations too. The objective of the study was to determine the factors associated with mucocele in patients attending the dental clinic of Penang Hospital from January 2000 to December 2005. This is a retrospective record review analysis of all the total 35 cases treated during this period, comprising of 20 males (57.1%) and 15 females (42.9%) with Malays as the largest group of patients treated and, mainly students had seek treatment. Mucocele was frequently treated in patients aged 21 to 24 year old. The site of the mucocele was the lower lip and all of the cases were treated surgically. The size of the mucocele ranged from 0.5 to 5 centimetres with 1.0 cm as the most common size. Most of the patients gave a history of spontaneous development (71.4%), followed by lip biting (25.7%) and trauma (2.9%). Lip biting was more common among students (55.6%) as compared to others. There were only two recorded cases of recurrence. Introduction A mucous cyst is a benign, self-limiting condition (López-Jornet, 2006), mucous containing cystic lesion of the salivary glands and is common within the oral cavity. Most of these are devoid of the epithelial lining (Baurmash, 2003). The lesions can be located directly under the mucous membrane (superficial mucocele) or in the upper sub mucosa (classical mucocele) (Selim and Shea, 2007). The prevalence of mucocele is 2.5 lesions per 1000 population in the United States of America (Selim and Shea, 2007). Similar study has shown that mucoceles represent the 17th most common oral lesion (Flaitz and Hicks, 2006). In Sweden, children of one year and older had shown the prevalence of mucoceles was 0.11% and in Brazil, the prevalence was 0.08% (Flaitz and Hicks, 2006). The development of mucous retention type mucocele depends upon the obstruction of the salivary flow from secretory apparatus of the salivary gland (Flaitz and Hicks, 2006). There are two types of mucous cyst, based on the histology of the cyst wall; a mucous extravasation cyst formed by mucous pools surrounded by granulation tissue and mucous retention cyst with an epithelial lining (Bodner and Tal, 1991; Yamasoba et al., 1990). Salivary mucocele are common in the lower lip but may occur in other locations too (Seifert et al., 1986). The sizes may vary from few millimetres to centimeters, most are less than 1.5 cm in diameter (Flaitz and Hicks, 2006). Mucoceles usually occur singly and only rarely bilaterally (López-Jornet, 2006). The clinical presentation may vary depending on the depth of the lesion. Mucoceles are usually dome shaped enlargement with intact epithelium that lies over it (Flaitz and Hicks, 2006). Patients with superficial mucocele may complain of single or multiple blisters (López-Jornet, 2006). Mucoceles are generally painless and * Corresponding author. Dr. Abdul Rashid Khan, Department of Community Medicine, AIMST University, Semeling, 08100 Sungai Petani, Kedah, Malaysia. Fax: +604-420 8009. E-mail address: abdul_rashid@aimst.edu.my