Introduction and background: Odontogenic tumours have been studied retrospectively in most countries of the world. Most of these studies leave the question of relative frequency and incidence of the disease unanswered.

Aim: To determine the epidemiological pattern, relative frequency and incidence of odontogenic tumours in the Nigerian population.

Methods: Requests for prospective data collection over a year period (January 1st–December 31st 2009) were sent to centres involved in the management of Odontogenic tumours in Nigeria. We collected through a structured questionnaire designed to obtain demographic and clinico-pathologic information on all cases of odontogenic tumours presenting and diagnosed at the centres over the study period. Data was entered into SPSS statistical soft ware and analysed using simple descriptive statistics.

Results: A total of 277 patients’ information was obtained from responding centres. They were 146 males and 131 females aged 8–75 years. Their mean age (SD) was 32.37 (14.16). An estimated national incidence of 1.97 per million population was obtained. 242 (87.3%), of the lesions were in the mandible, 31 (11.1%) in the maxilla and the rest affected both jaws. There was a greater predilection for the body/angle/ramus parts of the mandible. Ameloblastoma had the highest relative frequency constituting (217/277) 78.3% and an incidence rate of 1.54 per million followed by odontogenic myxoma (11/277) 3.97% with an incidence rate of 0.078 per million.

Conclusion: This study like many others suggests that ameloblastoma is the most prevalent odontogenic tumour in Nigeria however; we found higher incidence figures than in some African and European reports.

Conflict of interest: None declared.