Oral melanoacanthoma is an uncommon reactive condition that appears as a solitary pigmented lesion and is most often found on the buccal mucosa. For it to appear in the gingiva is extremely rare--only 11 cases are reported in the literature. This article presents a case of gingival melanoacanthoma and reviews the previously published cases. Because gingival melanoacanthoma shares clinical features with other pigmented lesions with diverse genesis, the differential diagnosis of a solitary pigmented lesion on the gingiva is also discussed.