To study the characteristics of sialolithiasis in children, we examined 16 patients with sialolithiasis younger than 10 years who were treated in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Nagano Red Cross Hospital during a period of 27 years 3 months from October 1983 to December 2010. The 16 patients with sialolithiasis had salivary calculi in the submandibular gland. The main initial chief complaint was swelling in the salivary gland or its aperture (7 patients, respectively). About 70% of the patients visited our department within 6 months from the onset of initial symptoms. The main initial clinical finding was swelling in the aperture of the salivary gland (12 patients). All patients had a calculus, and most of the calculi were less than 10 mm in diameter. Calculi were removed through an intraoral approach in 14 patients (87.5%).
The results of our examinations and previous studies indicated that the most common region of sialolithiasis in children was the aperture of the submandibular gland. The calculi usually caused swelling in the aperture and salivary gland, and their size was 10 mm or less in diameter.