Hi, I'm new to the board. It's really great that this is around to help people.

Ok, I am very worried here. I am 20 years old and had dipped for 2-3 years on and off after highschool. I recently quit when i found a small lump about the size of a pea on my lower inside gum just about where the gums reach the floor of the mouth. The lump is not visible but can be detected through touch. It is hard but moveable in all directions as if it is attached to the gum elastically. There is no serious pain, only a feeling of slight irritation. I am very worried. I know no one here could possibly make a diagnosis but does this sound like a mouth cancer to you? And what are the chances it is malignant vs something benign?

Dear Chuck,
You are going to get lots of replies here, I just happened to be the first! It isn't cancer until it is diagnosed as cancer. So your first step is to make an appointment with your doctor or an oral surgeon and have him/her look at it. In the meantime, worrying isn't helping anything so try to DO something about it by making the appt. OK?
God bless
Judy

Hi Chuck,

Judy is absolutely correct. You should get that checked. To help you with the worry, there are lots of things it could be, many are not serious. At your age cancer is less likely. The tricky thing is it is difficult to tell without expert help. Get that appointment and then don't worry.

Good you quit the chew!

yes im making the appointment, im just so worried and constantly going through my head over what it could possibly be. I mean ive had one dental surgery, my wisdom teeth. I have excellent oral hygiene, i've never even had a cavity in my life, and gotten nothing but compliments from my dentist, then this hits me. I'm just scared and wondering what it could be besides cancer. I mean what else forms lumps in your mouth? What else could it possibly be at 20 years old?

Hi Chuck,

It ain't cancer till they do a biospy and say it's cancer. At your age it is highly unlikely.
Please refrain from any form of tobocco use. You have your whole life ahead of you tobocco free!!!!
Not many of us could have said that at age 20.
Get it checked out and let us know. We love to hear good news. Dan

I really appreciate your responses, and i greatly respect the fantastic courage all of you have had in battling this terrible disease. I promise to say a prayer for God to watch over all of you as I'm sure he is, and ask kindly for you to do the same for me. Thank you for your time. I'll be sure to check in when i finally get the results of my checkup. Until then any resource or response is greatly appreciated. This is a difficult matter for me to deal with at such a young age but i am doing my best even though i, for the first time in my life, am truly frightened. Best wishes

chuck

Sorry Chuck - but how can you "dip" and still have "excellent oral hygiene"? Aren't the two diametrically opposed?

I guess it could be said that tobacco doesn't cause tooth decay but that's about it.

Denial is not a river in Eygyt.

Stop using tobacco products - heed the wakeup call or you will be joining our little club.

A lump with no pain is definitely something to be concerned about. You didn't say who you were making an appointment with but, if it were me, I would make it with an ENT or head & neck surgeon. You don't even want to fool around with a misdiagnosis. Like others have said - it's probably not a big deal but if it is, time is of the essence.

We all understand your fear -we have walked in this path before you. I passed out when I got my Dx. You can always ask for anti-anxiety meds to get you through.

OK, I made my appointment with my dentist, my Aunt. She immedediately took and xray and diagnosed me with a blocked salivary gland. She wrote a prescription for an antiboitic and told me that it should recede by the time the antibiotic is finished, and if not she will refer me to an oral surgeon. I asked her specifically if it looked like a tumor and she said no. This makes me feel a bit better but i'm still worried. Does this sound right to you guys? What should I do next?

hey chuck,

not to sound like a smart ass, but i say take the meds.

i recently had a blocked saliva duct and it took the full 10 days of meds to relieve the pain and swelling. initially i saw a regular MD, afterwards i was able to see a doc who specializes in this stuff and he was glad to see the effects of the medication... he also said he was 99.9% sure that the problem was a blocked duct.

however since i did have oral cancer and completed treatment 2 yrs ago, he also confirmed that i am scheduled to have a head and neck MRI in the very near future... just to be sure.

so i recommend doing the meds, then see a doc again to see if any follow up proceedures are recommended... note that your history is much different than mine, so your doc might not recommend any further medical services.

you might consider taking Acidophilus tables to help your digestion while on antibotics....

good luck,
larryb

My dentist, who has many years experience and has his hygenist always check for cancer missed Dx'ing a huge, highly visible tumor 6cm x 3 cm growing off of my right tonsil. If this thing is truly pain free I would be concerned. If you have an infection, it will be painful. I had a dentist tell me that it's the lack of pain to be concerned with. Two weeks won't make much difference - take the antibiotics and see if you have a response. If you do - fantastic if not - see an ENT. I went through 2 rounds of antibiotics myself to no avail.

Hi Chuck, The salivia ducts are usually pretty easy to find and if obstructed there will be reduced or no flow seen. My guess is your aunt is right, and you shouldn't worry for now. Take the drugs and monitor the situation. If it doesn't get better then proceed on with the next followup.

Gary is correct in saying many of us had late diagnosis on our cancer (mine was 6 months after the lump showed up in my neck) That is why we don't mess around with our advice to be diligent in getting things looked at. The comments should not imply that we don't believe your dentist, rather that ANYTHING unusual in the oral cavity that doesn't go away in 2 weeks needs thorough checking including a possible biopsy and microscopic analysis. Don't be freaked out by this, but we just lost a family member here that was 29 years young. We may be a little shell-shocked.

Take care and be sure to let us know how things work out.

OK, the pennicillin reduced the swelling in the floor of my mouth but didn't do much else, the lump is still there and there is actually a second larger one forming below. I went to my oral surgeon and he immediately went through a light cancer screening. Felt lymph nodes, no swelling. Xrayed the floor of my mouth, nothing. He said that i probably have either a cyst or a blockage of a minor salivary gland, but that it's not much to worry about. He told me to rinse with saltwater four times a day for a month and come back in february. If the lump is still there he will remove it and send them in for biopsy. I'm still worried and the pain in my mouth is very irritating, but since my lymph nodes checked out fine and there are no, as he put it, calcifications in the floor of my mouth, i feel a bit better. I'm assuming at worst this is a very small cancer that I caught very early, and at best it's just a benign problem. Really hoping it's benign though.

Hi Chuck, Thanks for the update!

I have been wondering what is going on. I still would believe that cancer at your age is unlikely. I also don't like the wait one month and see idea. If I were you I'd see another doctor (Ear Nose & Throat ENT) for a second opinion without waiting. The price would be worth the peace of mind. It would seem to me that someone should be able to tell you for sure what it is.

Take care

That's what I thought when he told me that. Supposedly this guy is very good at what he does, always flying around and out of the country to do surgeries and what not. So I trust him. But he couldn't give me any kind of a definite answer. He said if it was cancer, especially in the floor of the mouth almost 100% of the time your lymph nodes will be very noticibly swollen. He said that my xray showed that although these lumps feel hard, the xray went right through them meaning that they are not calcified, most likely not tumourous. He narrowed it down to 2 or 3 benign problems. He said he didn't want to do a biopsy right away because after it I would be quite sore for quite a while and talking and eating would be painful. It was frustrating, I was about to tell him to just cut me open for God's sake and let me know for sure. I think I may visit an ENT, who will probably just want to do a biopsy, which is what my oral surgeon will most likely have to do to me in a couple weeks anyway. So ugh, the not knowing is hard to deal with. The saltwater rinse is helping quite a bit with the slight swelling and pain, but like the penicillin, isn't doing much else. Oh well, this should all get figured out soon enough.

Hi Chuck,
I'm not trying to frighten you but there are a number of us here who had no lymph node involvement. I had none yet my cancer was staged at III/IV, so your oral surgeon is flat wrong about it. That's why I always recommend seeing an ENT or head & neck surgeon (preferably one from a comprehensive cancer center).
There's only one way to get a definitive answer - biopsy and pathology report - xrays and scans are subject to interpretation.

If it is an infection it should be accompanied by some pain. If it responds to the antibiotics then you're home free - if not, get a referral to a competent ENT and find out for sure. And yes, there are benign conditions that it could be also.

In all fairness to your doctors, oral cancer in 20 year olds is fairly uncommon and that's why they don't believe that's what you have. My head & neck surgeon told me that the 6cm x 3cm tumor growing on my tonsil might be benign also (until the biopsy report came back). Since I haven't drank or smoked in many years I didn't fit the profile either.

It is good that you are taking this seriously. If, in the rare possibility, it is cancer, the earlier you have treatment, the better the outcome will be. In any case - ditch the dip. We would hate to see you back here in 20 years saying we told you so...

Chuck...........Gary is right. The floor of my mouth and tongue were full of cancer and I had no pain and no lymphnode involvement what so ever. I was 34 when first diagnosed with tongue cancer and it took me a Family MD, office visit, a visit to both a dentist and an oral surgeon who put me on antibiotics and told me "to watch "it" for a few months" and a couple of more Doctor visits before they finally did the biopsy and discovered ......'by gosh it is cancer." They didn't take me seriously either because I didn't fit the profile. Thankfully the first time around I was lucky and they only had to remove a tiny section of tongue and since there was NO lympnode involvement I didn't have to concern myself with RAD or chemo. I was lucky back then, diagnosed in Nov'89 and surgery Jan 2, 1990. Seven years later I had a recurrence and wasn't so lucky. Lost over two-thirds of my tongue and suffered though a treatment of RAD and chemo.

You are your own best advocate. Make an appointment with an ENT, have him/her biopsy the lesion or lump and be done with it. A biopsy is not that painful nor does the pain last that long. Eating and chewing are nomal after afew days and if it isn't cancer you'll be back to normal in a few days. The only way a Doctor can give a cancer diagnoses is by a biopsy and reading the path report. I encourage you to move forward in this direction, if for nothing else, a peace of mind.

A good rule of thumb/tongue: ANYTHING ...lump, sore, lesion, funny color.......should be looked at and biopsied if it has been in the oral caviity more than two weeks and especially if an anti biotic has been used and isn't working. Too many of us didn't fit the 'profile' and let things go on too long. Don't let that happen you you. Make your appointment with an ENT....a GOOD Ears,Nose and Throat Doctor, and do it today. I know that sometimes it is very difficult to get an immediate appointment but if you explain your situation perhaps they will get you in right away rather than making you wait.

Good Luck, Chuck, and let us know what is happening.

Sincerely
Donna

saw my oral surgeon again this weekend. he took another look and told me he is 100% sure this is nothing cancerous. he diagnosed me with swollen salivary ducts. He said he is absolutely sure because he has seen them before and cancer simply does not act or look the same as these cysts. He wrote me a prescription for an anti-inflammatory mouth rinse and told me to come back in a month. he said he did not feel a biopsy was even necessary because he is 100% sure he knows what it is. he told me to come back once the rinse is done and if they are still there and i am still worried he can biopsy or destroy the cysts with a laser. he really made me feel a lot better. he said he wants to stay away from surgery because it will cause some unnecessary destruction of normal tissue but i of course can still pursue that option. i am not a doctor and he seemed to be very sure of himself, i feel much better now, just wondering what you guys think?

I think that is very good news, Chuck, and it seems right on the money. Of course you will go back in a month, right? And of course you will use this as a wake-up call to stay far away from tobacco products, right? You are more than welcome to visit us any time, but I know everyone would prefer that you not join our club (grin). Thank you so much for letting us know how things turned out. We need to hear all the good news we can around here.

Hi Chuck,

Call him and ask if he is 100% sure to bet his house and next year's wages if he is wrong. That should work.

i take it you're skeptical?

No Chuck I am not skeptical, I have no way of knowing. He may be right, actually with all his experience he probably is right.

Nevertheless, it is your mouth and ultimately your potential treatments and facing a life threat if he is wrong. A nice house and his money might be a fair trade. What I am getting at is YOU want to be SURE he is sure.

Chuck,

I agree with Mark. You need to be sure you are comfortable with what this doctor is saying. And, personally, I find it hard to believe that a biopsy is going to cause very much "unnecessary destruction of normal tissue". If things start to improve, go back in a month. But, if things don't start to improve within a couple weeks, I wouldn't wait a full month. Just my 2 cents.

Rainbows & hugs,
Rosie