Hi. I'm worried I might have a lesion that could be leukoplakia on the floor of my mouth (on the frenulum of the tongue to be more specific.) At first I thought It was thrush because it would grow overnight if I didn't brush my teeth at night. I would wake up and see this white patch (3 mm x 2 mm) on the frenulum of my tongue and I'd scrape it off with a cotton swab and it would fall off very easily. It all begun when I started putting a prescription drug under my tongue (it tastes kinda sugary and minty.)

Only a little white line remains there after I scrape off the patch. I thought it would heal on its own, but it didn't. It kept growing, I'd scrape it off and it would grow again the next day until I decided to go to the dr and he prescribed me oral nystatin. After the treatment the white patches would not grow again so when I went to the specialist she looked at the floor of my mouth and she said I didn't have anything. So I stopped using oral nystatin (I took it for 4 days.)

But today it grew again (just a little) and I scraped it off, but a little white line (parallel to the frenulum of the tongue) still remains there. I'm at my wit's end because the specialist said I didn't have anything.

I used to be a smoker (I quit 2 years ago although I smoke one or 2 cigarettes every month or so.) I'm in my late 20's and I've had oral unprotected sex. I also have a few beers every week or less.

Should I worry about it? Is it normal for leukoplakia to grow fast and then to be able to scrape it off until a little line remains? I'm considering going to the dr again. Could this be some king of fungus or is it really leukoplakia?

I'm very worried because when I wake up in the morning it looks awful, then I scrape it off and it ends up looking kinda normal (only the white line remains.) That's why everyone who looks at my mouth after I scrape the white thing off, they all say I don't have anything. But I do! If I didn't, it wouldn't grow. Also the line is so small it cannot be easly noticed if you don't pay attention.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!!

Welcome to OCF!

We have a few sayings around here.... Any spot, sore, patch, red or white area, etc that someone has in their mouth that does not heal on its own within 2-3 weeks should be checked by a medical professional. By "professional" I meant an ENT who specializes in treating oral cancer (OC) patients.

When asking for help in getting a diagnosis for what you have going on, please understand our site is made up of OC patients and caregivers... not medical professionals. We are most familiar with OC, its diagnosis, treatments, and recovery from treatments. Only a very few of our members are here for something other than oral cancer. We are not able to diagnose you or anyone else over the internet, to do so without the qualifications would be unfair to the patient. We do not have many years of medical school, patient clinical experience, medical degrees, your entire medical history, or you to physically examine and ask clarifying questions of right in front of us. Even if you were present or showed us photos and told us your entire medical history we still would not be able to tell you what you have or even give you a guess as we are not medical professionals.

Heres some very basic, limited info that might help you.... I suggest you return to your original physician who gave you the prescription drug you had been putting under your tongue. The doctor who prescribed it should be most familiar with all the side effects it could cause. Hopefully the same doctor is who prescribed the nystatin. Did you follow the directions and take the full course of the nystatin? If not, theres a very good possibility thrush is what you have going on. Nystatin is frequently given to patients who have thrush. When you are talking about being able to easily scrape the white patch off it sounds like you are describing thrush which is actually a fungal infection. Often people who have thrush have it in more than just a spot under their tongu, most of their mouth is covered in the white film. All directions for nystatin must be followed or the thrush will just return. This includes finishing the medicine which (from what I have observed OC patients go thru) is more than only 4 days of nystatin. Go back to your original physician and ask about the original under tongue medication, ask about thrush and leukoplakia, nystatin and if you should be on something different than putting medicine under your tongue (especially if it is what caused you to get thrush). Heres also a link from our main OCF site about leukoplakia.

Main OCF Site, Leukoplakia and other premalignant lesions

Im sorry but thats about all we can do to help you here. Hopefully you do not have anything serious going on and it will be easily and quickly taken care of.