INTRODUCTION: The search for new methods that aid and optimize the diagnosis of cystic and tumoral maxillary lesions aims to benefit both patients and professionals from oral diagnosis. In addition to clinical, radiographic and histological findings traditionally used in research protocol for maxillary lesions, the adaptation of widely used medical techniques may be very helpful. The cell block procedure streamlines this process, inasmuch as it consists of cytopathological analysis of materials, liquids and effusions, collected from aspirated lesions such as maxillary cysts and cystic maxillary tumors. OBJECTIVE: To demonstrate the applicability of cell block technique for cytological assessment of biological material collected from cystic maxillary lesions. RESULTS: The cytological evaluation revealed that five out of 20 lesions, whose content had been processed by this technique, were odontogenic keratocystic tumors (TOCs), predominantly with keratin and always with parakeratin areas. In the other cases (five dentigerous, five radicular and five residual cysts) there were erythrocytes, inflammatory cells, and cholesterol clefts. CONCLUSION: The cytological assessment through cell block technique was useful as to establishing the differential diagnosis between TOC and other lesions, radicular, residual and dentigerous cysts.
Citology; Biopsy; Maxillary cysts; Odontogenic cysts; Odontogenic tumors
