Introduction: inflammatory papillary hyperplasia (IPH) is a benign lesion of the palatal mucosa. It is usually found in denture-wearers but also has been reported in patients without a history of use of a maxillary prosthesis use. Objetives: the aim of this study is to review the literature to assess the prevalence of denture stomatitis and inflammatory papillary hyperplasia and the etiological factors associated. Material and methods: a search was carried out in PubMed (January 2005 to October 2015) with the key words 'inflammatory papillary hyperplasia', 'denture stomatitis', 'granular stomatitis' and 'Newton's type III' The inclusion criteria were studies including at least a sample of 50 apparently healthy patients, articles published from 2005 to 2015 written in English. The exclusion criteria were reviews and non-human studies. Results: out of the 190 studies obtained initially from the search 16 articles were selected to be included in our systematic review. The prevalence of denture stomatitis was 29.56% and 4.44% for IPH. We found 5 cases of denture stomatitis among non-denture-wearer individuals. All IPH cases were associated with the use of prosthesis. Smoking and continued use of ill-fitting dentures turned out to be the most frequent risk factors for developing IPH. Conclusions: IPH is a rare oral lesion and its pathogenesis still remains unclear. Its presentation among non-denture-wearers is extremely unusual.