RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to analyze the distribution of oral and maxillofacial lesions affecting children and adolescents patients from a single oral pathology laboratory from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Oral and maxillofacial lesions biopsied in patients younger than 19-years were retrieved from the oral pathology files of the Department of Oral Diagnosis and Pathology, School of Dentistry, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro over a 75-year period (1942-2017). The clinical data and the diagnoses of each case were included in a Microsoft Excel® database, being classified into 13 categories according to the etiology. A descriptive analysis of the variables age, gender and final diagnosis was made. RESULTS: From 19.095 lesions diagnosed in this period, 2408 (12.61%) were from patients aged 0 to19 years, with a higher incidence in females in the second decade. Salivary gland pathology was the most common group of lesions (24.30%), followed by reactive lesions (16.82%) and odontogenic cysts (14.66%). Mucocele was the most common lesion (21.72%), followed by dentigerous cyst (6.48%) and fibrous hyperplasia (6.44%). Malignant lesions were observed in 1.12% of all cases with Burkitt lymphoma as the most frequent. CONCLUSIONS: Our results were similar to previous studies and knowledge of these data may contribute to the understanding of oral lesions that most commonly affects children.