Surgical Exploration of Lingual Mandibular Bone Depression (Stafne Bone Cavity)

Lingual mandibular bone depression, also known as the Stafne bone cavity, commonly presents as an asymptomatic unilocular cyst-like radiolucency located below the mandibular canal. Surgical exploration of this lesion is relatively rare in the literature. A 49-year-old male was admitted to the hospital for a space-occupying lesion located in the right mandibular angle region and was performed surgical exploration. The content of the lesion was excised and prepared for histologic investigation, which revealed fibrous connective tissue, adhering muscle and nervous tissue with no evidence of epithelium tissue. Thus, the lesion was diagnosed as lingual mandibular bone depression. Of the various theories of the etiology of lingual mandibular bone depression, the most popular "glandular theory" seemed to be inapplicable in the present case. Providing misleading information in this case, B-mode ultrasonography was proved to be of little help in diagnosing this lesion.