In my case I do not have any dental work which would be suspect for the lichen planus. I should also have specified that I have never smoked, never chewed tobacco, and I drink very little alcohol. There's nothing in my history that I can point to as being suspect for causing the OLP.

In an odd twist, my wife believes that perhaps the continued biopsies may have actually contributed to the ongoing nature of my problem. When this all started it was a small, white, painless spot under my tongue. Of course the first biopsy left a sore, which I had a hard time getting rid of. The next outbreak was more erosive and becoming painful. The surgeon attempted to remove the affected tissues through the biopsy. So, then I had a bigger 'sore'. It would flare up and die down a bit from month to month, but over time the flare-ups did gradually worsen, and I seemed to have more and more difficulty in recovering from each biopsy.

I don't think there's any way to know if the OLP would have progressed and become erosive without the tissue 'trauma' from that first biopsy, and then the consecutives ones. I'm not even sure my hindsight is 20/20 in this case - I still think it was better to err on the safe side of having it checked, even if all that tissue cutting from the biopsies may have actually worsened the condition to some degree.

It may be worthwhile to note as well, that at the time of my last biopsy, the oral surgeon all but told me I was being paranoid. He said, "we keep checking this you know, and it's always lichen planus - there's just nothing we can do about lichen planus". I reminded him that it was HE who suggested I continue to have it checked each year. It seemed an odd reversal of the way he had always treated it before. He went ahead with the biopsy (hinting strongly that he was only doing so to pacify me) and sure enough.....this time it was cancer.

Suffice it to say I no longer see him for my oral surgery needs....