Benign intraoral soft tissue pathology in pediatric patients includes developmental, traumatic, inflammatory, and infectious lesions. Common pathology includes gingival cysts, mucoceles, fibromas, and parulis. Less common lesions include peripheral ossifying fibromas, congenital epulis of the newborn, and congenital mandibular duct atresia. Most of these lesions present at painless masses but can have significant effects on children and their caregivers. Although these lesions are generally harmless, evaluation and treatment is necessary for appropriate management and health of the child.

Unique dental conditions in children include odontogenic cysts and tumors, hereditary dental diseases, developmental anomalies, and lesions associated with the eruption of the primary or permanent teeth. Many of these conditions have long lasting effects on the adult dentition in terms of affecting esthetics, function, and overall quality of life. Inherited dental syndromes affect the dental hard tissues specifically the enamel, dentin, and/or cementum in a generalized manner, involving both primary and permanent teeth. These conditions manifest in altered quality or quantity of the hard tissues, leading to fragility, tooth loss and dental diseases such as caries, periapical pathology, and periodontal disease. This category includes amelogenesis imperfecta, dentinogenesis imperfecta, dentin dysplasia, hypophosphatasia, and hypophosphatemia. Developmental defects such as regional odontodysplasia are defined by involvement of the primary and permanent dentition in a localized manner, identified in early childhood. This review will elaborate on the histologic findings in these selected dental conditions with a discussion on clinical and radiographic findings, as well as molecular features wherever appropriate.

General dentists usually serve as first-line providers for pediatric patients and the gateway to their oral health. Even though general dentists are trained to be able to treat children, dental education instruction can vary greatly. These differences heavily influence the individual practitioner\'s knowledge base and comfort level in providing care to this vulnerable population. It is important for general dentists to be able to identify the presence of pediatric oral lesions. This article provides an overview of common pediatric oral lesions that general dentists may encounter in everyday practice.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to evaluate the pediatric oral biopsies received between 2002-2011 from a dental and maxillofacial centre in Salem, Tamilnadu, India retrospectively based on age, sex, site and type of the pathologies.
METHODS: The records of dental and maxillofacial surgery centre were taken and a retrospective evaluation of the pediatric lesions biopsied over a period of ten years (2002-2011) was done. Patients aged 15 years and below were considered as pediatric patients and pathologies were grouped into 8 categories, according to age, gender, anatomic location and pathologic diagnosis.
RESULTS: A total of nine hundred twenty five biopsies were studied, of which 97 cases were from pediatric patients. The pathologies were predominant in mandible to maxilla (47:29).The distribution of the pathologies were 44 odontogenic pathologies, 18 connective tissue tumours, 3 salivary gland tumours, 5 fibro osseous lesions and 25 tumour like lesions. Out of this 44 odontogenic pathologies, 39 were odontogenic cysts, and 5 were odontogenic tumours.
CONCLUSIONS: Unlike other studies, the lesions were more common in the mandible with a female predilection. The majority of oral and maxillofacial lesions detected in pediatric population were benign similar to the previous reports.