[2][3] They are commonly found along the lateral periodontium or within the bone between the roots of vital teeth, around mandibular canines and premolars.
[3] Standish and Shafer reported the first well-documented case of LPCs in 1958, followed by Holder and Kunkel in the same year although it was called a periodontal cyst.
[2] Observable clinical signs of a LPC include a small, soft-tissue swelling found just below or within the interdental papilla.
Associated teeth root divergence and absorption is seldom observed,[12] with loss of periodontal ligament space and lamina dura also possible.
[11] Lateral periodontal cysts have to undergo surgical removal by excision or conservative enucleation, with post surgery radiographic follow up for several years, monitoring recurrence.
[2] Root divergence due to lateral periodontal cysts are normalised or reduced after surgical treatment, without orthodontic intervention required.
[6] It was opposed by Van der Waal in the same year as he stated that BOC extends well beyond the lateral area of root, therefore should not be considered as a variant of LPC.
[16] Successful treatment of LPC consists of surgical removal of the lesion by conservative enucleation with guided bone regeneration technique (GBR) with xenograft and resorbable collagen membrane.
LPC is usually reported as a coincidental finding during routine radiograph analysis, and usually does not show any symptoms due to its non-inflammatory nature, unless the cystic lesion is subject to secondary infection.