New findings and controversies in odontogenic tumors.

Odontogenic tumors comprise a heterogeneous group of lesions that ranges from hamartomas to benign and malignant neoplasms of variable aggressiveness. This article shows how the lack of uniform criteria employed for their proper identification, as well as the histomorphologic similitude found among some of them which behaves in different way, and the scantiness of proper methods to determine their precise origin makes necessary to recognize that at present, in spite of having more or less strict diagnostic criteria which have been internationally accepted, there is a need to continue developing research in the epidemiological, clinico-pathological, morpho-physiological and therapeutical fields in this area of the maxillofacial pathology.