The clinical and histopathological findings of 6 cases of necrotizing sialometaplasia (NS) are discussed and compared with the literature. The authors report 4 cases of NS of the minor salivary glands and 2 cases with associated tumor of the parotid gland and describe age, sex, site, clinical presentations, prognosis, etiopathogenesis and histological features of NS. Analysis of the data shows the difficulty of a differential diagnosis of NS of the minor salivary glands with other ulcero-erosive diseases of the oral cavity with traumatic, neoplastic or inflammatory origin.