I thought about titling the thread “What the hell happened in my mouth?” but I’m looking for serious responses.
About a week ago, I’m sitting down talking to a friend. All of a sudden, I got this incredibly intense and focused pain under my tongue, right above where that stringy thing meets the back of my lower gums. It felt like I got stung by an angry hornet. I spit out what I was chewing (laffy taffy, incidentally*) and gasped for breath a couple times. I almost cried out in pain. It got more and more intense for a good 10 -15 seconds, and I was just about to freak out when it started easing up a little bit.
The next day I had what looked like a hole in the spot, just very slightly larger than the hole a thumbtack might make, and it was still painful. After a couple days it evolved into a painful bump. Now it’s a slightly smaller and not very painful bump, and I have a feeling it’ll be gone in a few more days (don’t worry-- I’m not asking for medical advice and I’ll see a doctor if it doesn’t go away.)
Does anybody have a clue what might’ve happened?
*I know the knee-jerk response is going to be that there was some foreign object in the laffy taffy, but I really really really don’t think that was it. I didn’t feel anything in it, and I was chewing it in a completely different part of my mouth. I’m 99.999% sure it was completely incidental; I just put it there in the interest of full disclosure.
Turns out it was a cyst that had grown under my tongue, and then burst. In bursting, it discharged its contents into my mouth, and left a small hole behind.
This hole would heal up after a day or two, and the area would return to a normal appearance.
Then some weeks later, the process would repeat.
After this happened a couple of times, I went to a surgeon who removed the cyst and solved the problem.
blocked salivary gland, sounds like. That would show a small hole (the opening of the duct) at the base of the frenulum-the connection from the tongue to the floor of your mouth behind your lower teeth. The lump could be from saliva still being produced and not being able to get out. Sometimes that can happen when you are dehydrated (are you drinking enough water??). Or infection, or poor oral hygiene, or a salivary stone, or a tumor if you smoke or dip (not up at the top of the list as a possible cause but still on the list) If it doesn’t go away, or gets worse,see your doctor or dentist. Read about “sialolithiasis” (salivary stone) and see if your symptoms fit.
I didn’t feel a stone, but maybe I spit it out with the Laffy Taffy. Will they just spontaneously burst out within a few seconds with zero symptoms beforehand?
I brush twice a day and floss once a day, and I got a clean bill of oral health from a dentist just a couple months ago, so I don’t think it was poor oral hygiene, BUT . . . something was going on with my mouth about 1 to 3 weeks ago that has just cleared up this week. I had about 3 canker sores in different parts of my mouth, and my mouth and gums just felt pretty generally sore and inflamed.
I guess it’s possible that I was dehydrated. It is summer and I live in a desert.
I do smoke occasionally in social situations, and happen to have been puffing on a cigar that night.
I wonder if all these things are related. And I’m starting to wonder if the Laffy Taffy was related after all. It sure produces an excess of saliva.
When my husband had a salivary gland stone, he was instructed to eat lemon-flavored candy or something sour to get the saliva flowing in the hopes of dislodging it. So, probably.
“Will they just spontaneously burst out within a few seconds with zero symptoms beforehand?” I think if you had pushed out a stone that was blocking the duct, you would have noticed it-like a small 2-3 mm rock.
“I brush twice a day and floss once a day, and I got a clean bill of oral health from a dentist just a couple months ago, so I don’t think it was poor oral hygiene, BUT . . . something was going on with my mouth about 1 to 3 weeks ago that has just cleared up this week. I had about 3 canker sores in different parts of my mouth, and my mouth and gums just felt pretty generally sore and inflamed.”
With this history, it might have been a canker sore in the area of the duct that caused the duct to swell shut. Then, when you ate the Laffy Taffy (I love the banana flavor!),the saliva might have built up behind the swelling, causing pain, and then the pressure pushed the saliva past the swelling.
“I do smoke occasionally in social situations, and happen to have been puffing on a cigar that night.” Smoking at the time probably would not have caused the problem. But smoking is EVIL, NASTY, BAD, and you should quit that.
I wonder if all these things are related. And I’m starting to wonder if the Laffy Taffy was related after all. It sure produces an excess of saliva.
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