Peripheral Exophytic Oral Lesions: A Clinical Decision Tree

Table 3

General characteristics of smooth-surfaced oral exophytic lesions of mesenchymal origin.

Entity	Age	Gender	Site of involvement	Surface texture	Type of base	Consistency	Color	Size	Symptom & sign	Treatment	Recurrence
Neurofibroma	3rd decade	No sex predilection	Tongue	Smooth	Nodular/sessile	Soft to firm	Pink	Up to several centimeters	Asymptomatic	Complete excision	Rare
Schwannoma	Average: 34 years	Female	Tongue	Smooth	Nodular/sessile	Rubbery	Same to normal mucosa	0.5–4 cm	Asymptomatic	Surgical excision	Rare
Lipoma	>40 years	Male	Buccal mucosa/vestibule	Smooth	Nodular/sessile/; pedunculated	Soft/fluctuant	Pink to yellowish	<3 cm (often)	Asymptomatic	Conservative surgical excision	High in intramuscular lesions
Lymphoma	Average: 59 years	Male	Buccal vestibule & postpalate	Smooth/ulcerative	Nodular	Soft to firm	Pink/purplish/normal	Up to several cm	Nontender painful in intraosseous lesions	Chemotherapy/; radiotherapy	—
Hemangioma	Early infancy	Female	Lips	Smooth/lobulated	Sessile	Soft	Pink to red purple	Up to several cm	Asymptomatic	Sclerotherapy/surgical excision/laser therapy/cryotherapy	—
Lymphangioma	1st decade	No sex predilection	Tongue	Smooth/pebbly	Sessile	Soft	Pink to yellowish or normal color	Up to several cm	Macroglossy/airway obstruction/sialorrhea/jaw deformity	Surgical excision/cryotherapy/; electrocautery/; steroid administration/; sclerotherapy	—