True oral hemangioma is a developmental vascular malformation of capillaries. They tend to affect infants and young children with a slight female predilection. The lesions are not painful but will bleed if traumatized. They are usually present, but subtle, at birth, grow rapidly within the first few years of life, and then involute.

The more common vascular malformations in the oral cavity, loosely called hemangiomas, are proliferations of capillaries or venules that do not involute but persist and grow very slowly over years. They tend to occur on the tongue, buccal mucosa, and labial mucosa. The intrabony lesions are best classified as "vascular malformations."