Lingual Solitary Squamous Cell Papilloma

A n 11-years-old child attended the Department of Maxillofacial Surgery complaining of a painless tongue lesion two months ago. Besides, he was complaining of oral foreign body sensation. He denied a history of taking drugs and no family history of the same problem. Intraoral clinical examination showed soft, non-tender mass over the dorsum of the tongue with numerous finger-like projections that impart a ”cauliflower” or wart-like appearance. (Panel A). Under local anesthesia, the patient underwent surgical intervention using a 940 nm diode laser, 3W, CW. The lesion was completely removed and sent for histopathological examination that revealed squamous papilloma (Panel B). Squamous papilloma is a benign proliferation of the stratified squamous epithelium which results in a verrucous or papillary exophytic mass from the intraoral mucosal surface. Mostly, it is seen at the uvula, palate, lips, buccal mucosa, and tongue. The exact etiology is still unknown, but it is associated with human papillomavirus types 6 and 11. The oral squamous papilloma occurs in 1 of every 250 adults. It comprises 7-8% of all pediatric oral lesions. At 6-weeks follow-up (Panel C), there was complete healing with a good functional and aesthetic outcome.