Treatment of Oral Mucous Cysts With an Argon Laser

To the Editor.—  Mucous cysts (MC) of the minor salivary glands are oral soft-tissue lesions that arise as domeshaped swellings. The most common sites of predilection are the mucous surface of the lower lip and the buccal mucosa. The wall of these lesions is mostly composed of granulation tissue with a high degree of vascularization.¹ Mucous cysts seem to develop as a result of the escape of mucus through a ruptured duct into the adjacent connective tissue.²The blue-green light of the argon laser is selectively absorbed in the hemoglobin molecule of the intravasal erythrocytes and transformed to heat resulting in destruction of vascular tissues.^3,4 The heat generated also causes nonspecific epidermal and upper dermal coagulation necrosis with subsequent fibrosis. The rationale for treating MC with the argon laser was the high vascular component of the lesions' wall, as well as the nonspecific shrinkage effect due to heat. This is the first report on the successful treatment of MC of the oral cavity with an argon laser.