A 34-year-old male patient presented with asymptomatic bony overgrowth in his mandibular arch. The overgrowth started 5 years back and gradually kept on increasing to its present size. On intraoral examination, the bony overgrowth was present bilaterally on the lingual surface of the mandible from canine to first molar region, measuring about 1.4 cm × 1 cm (Figure, black arrows). The overgrowth was sessile and nontender, with normal overlying mucosa and no ulceration. Occlusal radiograph showed bony overgrowth on the lingual cortical plates from the canine to the first molar area. There was absence of any cutaneous fibromas, intestinal polyposis, and multiple bony overgrowths; hence, Gardener’s syndrome, an autosomal dominant syndrome, was ruled out. The diagnosis arrived at was torus mandibularis. Because the patient was asymptomatic, no treatment was carried out.
Torus mandibularis is more common in Asian males, while in the US the prevalence is around 7%-10%.1 The etiology of torus mandibularis is not definitive, but it may be multifactorial due to genetic factors, environmental factors like individual diet, and occlusal stress such as bruxism.2, 3, 4 Tori mandibularis are slow-enlarging lesions with no malignant transformation potential. Torus mandibularis usually does not require surgical resection unless it becomes large enough to interfere with function of mastication.
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-Tanay V. Chaubal, MDS, Ranjeet Bapat, MDS, Kartik Poonja, MDS
This article originally appeared in the October 2017 issue of The American Journal of Medicine.
