[An African disease: noma].

Cancrum oris, formerly a fatal disease, is seen in poor regions of Africa. The starting point of the disease is acute ulceronecrotic gingivitis which results in an extensive gangrenous plaque destroying, from inside working outwards, the dental arch, the maxilla and all of the soft tissues of the face. At the stage of sequelae, the therapeutic problem is twofold: functional and morphological. It is based on a panoply of technical procedures of surgical reconstruction.