lump on gum! help???

[ninigigglez]

I have a small bone hard bump on my top gum where my wisdom tooth used to be. It is kind of sore and hurts when I eat food. Im so scared its oral cancer. I have a dentist appointment next week but I have the irrational fear that if its cancer it will spread before I can get it looked at... Im freaking out about it. I got my wisdom teeth out 4 years ago so I know its not from that. I dont have it on any other side. Just the top left. the soreness it radiating into my cheek..... im just so scared. I do smoke about 5 cigs a day...   

[ejmommy]

It doesn't sound like oral cancer. I think that would typically present as more of a sore than a bump. That sounds like bone fragment working it's way out. That is a common place for it. At most an infection (which can be easily treated with antibiotics in most cases). An exam by a doc will put your mind at ease. One week is not that long, it just seems forever when your anxiety is up!

[ninigigglez]

Thanks, im just always googleing things and freaking myself out even more! could it still be a bone fragment if i got my wisdom teeth out  4 years ago? that seems like a long time for it to work its way out..

[ejmommy]

Here is what I found on it nini,

"After a tooth is extracted, the rim of the bony socket becomes more conspicuously prominent since it is no longer dominated by the contour of the overlying tooth. This bony prominence is usually noticed after the initial postsurgical swelling goes down. It is especially common in the case of lower wisdom tooth extractions due to the inward inclination of the jaw bone in this area, coupled by a bony ridge that gives origin to several of the muscles that lie in the floor of the mouth.

This is a normal part of the anatomy, and is no cause for concern. However, if the bone contour is irritating and you do not become accustomed to its presence, it can be removed in a minor surgical procedure called an "alveolectomy."

On the chance that what you describe is more a sharp piece of hard material protruding through the gum rather than being covered by gum, this is more likely a piece of devitalized bone (called a "sequestrum") that is working itself out."



Is it a possibility it has been there for a while but you are just noticing it because it is irritated now? Sounds like it's pretty harmless. But if it is bothering you, go to that appointment and get it checked out for sure. It will give you peace of mind, and you can get it treated if it is an infection by chance.

[JunoX]

I had a small, sore, sort of hard lump in my gum, right over my left front tooth. It also hurt when image and would make my tooth throb a little since my tooth is still there and not extracted. It wasn't oral cancer, it was a fibroid. Weird, I know but harmless. Of course when they removed it they went through the whole biopsy bit because they legally have to but the doctor already knew it was benign from just looking at it.

Was I scared? Yes but at the end of the day, it was nothing and the only damage I sustained was that my insurance only covered the biopsy and not the X-ray or removal. I was out a couple of hundred bucks but I survived the lump.

[megaT]

I have one also.  It's a hard, bony lump.  Mine is on the left upper side of my gums.  I found it once while eating popcorn and ruined my whole weekend by worrying about it because I thought it had to be new since I'd never felt it before.  I got into the dentist within a few days, got an X-ray and confirmation from the dentist that all was fine.  It's called a mandibular torus.  They can be painful.  They can also scratch through the surface of the gum.  I bet that's what you've got.  Relax!  I think you're A-Ok.  :)

[mollyfin]

I once had a sharp, pointy lump on the outside of my upper gums.  It stretched the skin so tightly it almost poked through and was pretty painful.  It was there for months.  To this day, no idea what it was, but it eventually went away.