Hi Flymama,

I read your post and you are the first person I've noticed so far that seems to have had a similar experience to me, as far as it starting with dental issues. I was just diagnosed and don't have my surgery until 1/23, so I really hope yours goes well and that you feel up to posting afterwards!

I have been very perplexed about the dental connection and no one so far can really explain it to me. Like you, I had a rough tooth that was causing some irritation on my left side of the tongue, near my back molar. Then, after the tooth was pulled, I thought it would get better. After being on antibiotics too long, I developed oral thrush, so I had a bit white spot there and pain all over the inside of my mouth. I had no tongue lesions or pain at all before my tooth cracked a bit and started rubbing against my tongue. After the thrush cleared, my oral surgeon advised me that the lesion and ongoing pain was NOT oral thrush - that cleared and then he did a tongue biopsy.

That was when he determined it was SCC. To this day, I still don't understand how a scrape from a rough tooth turned into cancer. If this lesion appeared out of nowhere, I would have understood and it would have made more sense. But, I still don't get how this cancerous lesion developed in the exact same place as where my tooth was rubbing my tongue - and it happened in like a two week period.

Sorry if I seem frustrated, it's just that no doctor has been able to explain the connection between the dental work and suddenly having cancer that same month. I just kept thinking it was an extreme coincidence until I read your post. So, you are not alone. If you ever get any answers or theories on how a rough tooth led to squamous cell carcinoma, I would love to hear about that.

Good luck with your surgery, and please keep posting here...it's been very helpful for me so I hope you remain on the boards. :-)