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Odontogenic cysts are lesions that deserve every attention, mainly because of all complications they can cause. To study their characteristics, the authors did a retrospective clinicopathological analysis of 124 oral biopsies that were diagnosed as odontogenic cysts, in Hospital Geral de Santo António – Porto. Clinical variables such as age, sex, location, clinical diagnosis and histological diagnosis were studied. Inflammatory radicular cysts were the most commons (48.4%) followed by dentigerous cysts (21.0%), residual cysts (17.7%) and keratocysts (12.1%). The most frequent clinical manifestation was swelling (62.9%). Age appears to be related to the type of cyst, expressing the etiopathologic characteristics of each one. It is concluded that a definitive diagnosis is based on a triad of radiology, clinics and histology, which presupposes a tight cooperation between the clinician and the histopathologist. Key Words: oral pathology, developmental cysts, inflammatory cysts, jaw cysts