175‘epulides’were studied clinically and histologically. The lesions were histologically reclassified into three groups: granulomatous, fibromatous and giant cell lesions. The granulomatous group was four times and the giant cell group 1.5 times more frequent in females. It is suggested that the expression epulis should be abandoned as a microscopic designation for lesions in the oral mucosa, as it is only a non-specific topographico-clinical concept comprising histogenetically and histomorphologically differing lesions and therefore does not represent a uniform group. The suggested new terms for the three types of hyperplastic lesions areoral mucosal granulomatous hyperplasias(including such diagnostic terms as granulomatous gingivitis, gingivitis of pregnancy, granuloma gravidarium, pyogenic granuloma, epulis angiomatosa and epulis telangiectaticum),oral mucosal fibrous hyperplasias(including such diagnostic terms as fibrous epulis, epulis fissuratum, fibroepithelial lesions, denture injury tumor and peripheral odontogenic fibroma) andoral mucosal giant cell hyperplasia(including such diagnostic terms as peripheral giant cell granuloma and giant cell epulis).