We establish a new oscillation estimate for solutions of nonlinear partial differential equations of elliptic, degenerate type. This new tool yields a precise control on the growth rate of solutions near their set of critical points, where ellipticity degenerates. As a consequence, we are able to prove the planar counterpart of the longstanding conjecture that solutions of the degenerate p-Poisson equation with a bounded source are locally of class C^p'=C^(1,1/(p-1)) ; this regularity is optimal