Amalgam tattoo. uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • A 53-year-old woman with a history of melanoma status-post excision two years prior presented with a 4-month history of 4, dark-brown macules on the inferior surface of her tongue. A biopsy specimen showed a squamous mucosa with chronic submucosal inflammation and brown pigment. The clinical and histopathologic findings were consistent with a diagnosis of amalgam tattoo. Amalgam tattoos are common, oral pigmented lesions that clinically present as isolated, blue, grey, or black macules on the gingivae, the buccal and alveolar mucosae, the palate, and/or the tongue. They are due to deposition of a mixture of silver, tin, mercury, copper, and zinc, which are components of an amalgam filling, into the oral soft tissues. Amalgam tattoos can either be treated surgically or with a Q-switched ruby laser. In the case of our patient with the history of melanoma, her oral lesions proved not to be the more dire diagnosis of malignant melanoma.

publication date

  • May 15, 2008

Research

keywords

  • Dental Amalgam
  • Gingival Diseases
  • Mouth Mucosa
  • Pigmentation Disorders

Identity

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 44449172431

PubMed ID

  • 18627755

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 14

issue

  • 5