I have been the lucky recipient of some hypergranulation to my skin graft to my tongue. Basically it's like callused skin that you get on your feet! I have crooked teeth and a tooth that catches on the graft where it meets the top side of my tongue. Over the past couple months the skin has thickened there and become firm and ridgid.

Saw my surgeon last week and said he could trim it up a bit. I figured it was something he could do in the office but it's a daycare surgery event.

Anyone else have this done??

I really hope it doesn't make my lingual nerve pain any worse.

Hi there... UGH... I kind of know the feeling. The callus has built up to protect your graft. My tongue is a little too big for my mouth too (some days) and used to get severely irritated from rubbing on a couple of teeth. I had them filed down... problem solved. Removing the thickened part is okay but you need to solve the overall problem as well or it will come back repeatedly.

Also my dr. suggested debulking my graft a bit. I am more than willing to wait for a year more to see if it shrinks a bit as radiation does that to tissue. If not I might let him back in my mouth!... or maybe not. I'm not in a big hurry to have him in my mouth again with a scalpel. He's great... don't get me wrong. But NOOOOO!

good luck.

Would you believe, I had my teeth filed down before my 2nd surgery. The primary tooth in question that gets caught on the graft, I asked to have pulled as I knew it would be an issue and the dentists at the Foothills Hospital didn't think it was a good idea.

Incidently, I tried about 15 years ago to have the same tooth pulled as it always rubbed up against my tongue and is a huge nuisance, my dentist was in agreement but I was refered to an Orthodontist who recommended braces and jaw surgery instead. f*** that!! Couldnt afford braces and my dentist opted to confer with the Orthodontist....so instead I got cancer. Gee Thanks for listening Dentists. :P

Still would like to hear from people who have had their skin grafts revised or trimmed. My graft was large and never shrunk much according to my surgeon. Its been a year since my 2nd surgery when I got the graft. And a year and a half since my first laser surgery that removed the superficial cancer.

What was the recovery like? How much time off work was needed? What should I expect? My surgeon is not informative with details so I need to find out here.

Anybody?? Bueller, Bueller Bueller? lol

Its very common to need the new tongue resized. Its called debulking. Ive never had it done for my tongue but have had another debulking done and to me it wasnt a big deal. But you need to hear from others who have has this done on their tongue. Im sure its no where even close to as bad as what you have already gone thru.

Good luck!

I don't have a new tongue, I never lost any tongue tissue. The cancer was merely lasered away it was so superficical, but the lasered area ended up completely adhereing to the floor of my mouth and was totally 'anchored' something which the surgeon did not expect. (I scar very easily). Six months later he went in and un-achored my tongue and that's when I got a rather large (apparently) skin graft. (I may have lost some tissue then??) I only have a small area on the top edge of the graft that hypergranulates as it gets caught on my teeth all the time.

I really wish this forum had photos!!

I have been beside myself since starting this journey a year and a half ago trying to find out if my healing after each surgery was normal. Without pictures to compare a normal lasered area from what I was experiencing, or to see a typical skin graft of the tongue, I had no idea if I was healing normally. Sadly my healing apparently wasn't normal but 30 days after my first surgery, it was too late to do anything, anchoring had set in, despite contacting my surgeon to have him check it out earlier. I was denied an earlier appt. 30 days is the norm.

I have googled the hell out of my computer to look for pictures or information on the typical healing process for the laser glossectomy I had and came up empty handed and I again looked for images to give me an idea of what a skin graft to the tongue might looks like when I had my 2nd surgery and again came up empty handed. Very frustrating.

My surgeon didnt want to 'de-bulk' as you put it. He calls it 'revision of graft' and that is the surgical consent I signed. He said he would trim out the peice and suture it back. That's it. He is a man of very very few words.

Hi Tracy,
In my opinion I would not be googling too much as it can do your head in
You will find a wealth of information here and I just checked and put "granulation" in the search box. You will find a wealth of information including some of my own posts.
I would be happy to send you some photo's however I did lose around 1/3 of my tongue with a graft from my wrist unlike what it sounds like you have had done.
Most of my issues have been with granulation,scare tissue and leukoplakia along the seam (front) of the flap and tongue. Over the years I have had debulking, surgery that nibbled away at the scare tissue and silver nitrate sticks applied. I was often told that if I had one more tooth removed (had 4 removed bottom back) during my 2006 surgery I would not have had so many issues.
I truely understand your anxiety however you appear to be in good hands with your surgeons. Feel free to ask me anything you want.
Gabriele