Soft Tissue Recurrence with a Mucocele of an Intraosseous Ameloblastoma

Ameloblastoma is an odontogenic tumor of high frequency and usually occurs as an intraosseous growth. Ameloblastomas frequently recur, sometimes undergoing malignant transformation. These tumors are usually characterized as being multilocular, of the follicular type histopathologically, and invading strongly at the border region of the tumor. More than 10% p53-positive tumor cells give a prognostic indication for a tendency to recur. A recurrent ameloblastoma usually occurs in the intraosseous region near the site of the original lesion. In very rare cases, a recurrent tumor proliferates distantly from the original site in the soft tissue only. We report a rare case of recurrent ameloblastoma in the buccal mucosa with a mucocele that originated from the small salivary glands after the extirpation of an intraosseous (mandibular) ameloblastoma. We also performed a p53 immunohistochemical study of this recurrent tumor.