# A cyst formed when the stellate reticulum degenerates:
a. Eruption cyst
b. Dentigerous cyst
c. Keratocyst
d. Radicular cyst
The correct answer is A. Eruption cyst.
An eruption cyst is a type of dentigerous cyst formed when the stellate reticulum degenerates, leaving a cavity lined by the outer enamel epithelium before or during tooth eruption.
Eruption cyst is defined as an odontogenic cyst with the histologic features of a dentigerous cyst that surrounds a tooth crown that has erupted through bone but not soft tissue and is clinically visible as a soft fluctuant mass on the alveolar ridges.
An eruption cyst or ‘eruption hematoma’ is in fact a dentigerous cyst occurring in the soft tissues (Shear, 1992). Whereas the dentigerous cyst develops around the crown of an unerupted tooth lying in the bone, the eruption cyst occurs when a tooth is impeded in its eruption within the soft tissue overlying the bone.