Hi,

First of all, just let me say how amazing all of you are on this forum. I am in awe of your wisdom and courage.

I am in the process of evaluating a lump on right back alveolar ridge, the site of a wisdom tooth extraction more than 10 years ago. It is pink (the same color as surrounding tissue) smooth, nodular >1cm and painless. I have no way of knowing whether it is considered "hard" except to say that it does seem mobile to me, but it's firmly attached to the surrounding tissue. I've had it for a while. A dentist (not a very good one, I must say) told me it was nothing to worry about. I didn't really believe him, but I opted to live in denial. That was a year or so ago.

Recently I've been having what I think are salivary gland issues on the same side. Minor disturbances more than pain, relieved by massage. In any case, I finally went to the doctor who perfunctorily referred me to an ENT. I was unable to get an appointment sooner than two weeks.

Question, from your experience does this description warrant me paying outside my insurance from my own pocket for an earlier biopsy? Money is tight and it would be a hardship. But I'm getting progressively anxious.

Gloria - Maybe you could call the ENT that you have the appointment with and impress on his office staff how anxious you are about waiting two weeks and want something much earlier. When my son was diagnosed, the oral surgeons's office made his appointment for two weeks away with the ENT but I was so upset and worried, my ex-daughter-in-law at the time called, pretending to still be married to my son and and got the appointment for the next business day. I found out later that the ENT's office routinely moved appointments around to accomodate the more urgent requests. Later, after my son was recovering and doing ok, they often called me to ask if my son could switch with someone else who needed to get in sooner. So it is possible for them to make accommodations and they have cancellations sometime, too. The waiting is torture when you are worried and don't know what is happening. If you are really nice with the office people, it helps. Or you could ask someone to call for you and maybe they could cry a little. Whatever works. It couldn't hurt to try. In the meantime, try to keep busy because it may not be anything serious. Only a biopsy can tell for sure. Let us know what happens.