Gingival Swelling; Surprisingly Actinomycosis!

Abstract

Actinomycosis is a rare disease. Its diagnosis is challenging clinically as it mimics many other infectious diseases and neoplasms. In this scenario, a simple timely biopsy can come to the clinician’s rescue. Actinomycosis can be reliably diagnosed on histopathological examination accompanied by special stains without losing much time. Culturing this organism is a tedious job in view of its fastidious nature and requires a long waiting time. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) can be useful and is less time-consuming, but histopathology is more cost-effective in our country like India. This case report emphasizes the fact that a rare possibility of actinomycosis should also be kept in mind even in immunocompetent individuals in rare sites like gingiva even if there are no discharging sinuses noted clinically. Actinomycosis requires long-duration antibiotic treatment, so if diagnosis time is reduced, timely treatment of actinomycosis can be started and complications can be prevented.

Keywords

• actinomyces
• actinomycosis
• gingiva