Oral Histology

Kijabe is fortunate to have a pathology lab here at the hospital that serves Kijabe as well as at least 20 other mission hospitals all over Africa. Samaritan's Purse/World Medical Mission keep a cycling group of retired and semi-retired pathologists staffing the path lab here from month to month. Furthermore Kijabe pathology has the capability to capture pictures from their microscopes and digitally send them to a pathology specialist when needed. A recent pathologist (Dr. Gray) took a particular interest in my patient.



Patient was diagnosed clinically and radiographically with complex odontoma and lack of eruption. Complex odontoma is tumor characterized by the formation of calcified enamel and dentin in an abnormal arrangement because of lack of morphodifferentiation. Often times they look like a miniature ball of malformed teeth.



Dr. Gray was kind enough to e-mail me the microscopic viewpoint of the complex odontoma (I'll never quite know how they section this hard tissue thin enough to see under a microscope). If I remember my oral histology correctly I think the pink is dentin tubules and darker purple the pulp complex.